Rosalia Khlevner with her sister Serafima Kashkina and their friends

The picture was taken in 1921 in Rogachyov.

This is my mother Rosalia with her sister Serafima and their friends. Mother is sitting third from the left.

Mother's sister Serafima, born in 1902, is sitting first to the right in the first row. She worked as an accountant. Serafima got married and gave birth to daughter Ninel. Then she got divorced and got married for the second time and gave birth to another daughter, Zinaida.

In 1941 together with little Zinaida aged 18 months she left for the summer-house in Rogachyov to join her parents, and she was executed there together with her child in front of her father and mother. The three other girls, two sitting to the left and one standing, are Mother's friends. They spent most of their free time together since school years and shared all the secrets. Unfortunately, I don’t know their names or other details.

My mother’s name was Rosalia Mikhailovna Khlevner, nee Goldina. She was born in 1903 in Rogachyov. She attended a Jewish school and finished six grades. She knew Yiddish and wrote in Yiddish, but she had to speak Russian all her life. Before the Great Patriotic War she was a housewife, raising her children.

My parents lived in a small town and knew each other since their childhood. Mother was very beautiful and was a success among men, she attracted men’s attention. Even a rich nepman courted her. Father tried to attract my mother’s attention. And he did.

They got married in 1924. There was a wedding ceremony; I have seen the album with wedding pictures. They had a wedding according to the Jewish tradition, with a chuppah. Later my parents added other pictures to the album. It was a very beautiful album with a memorable inscription for the wedding. I had seen it before World War II, but it disappeared after the war.