Sophia Vollerner and Alexandr Andrievskiy

This is a picture of me and my husband Alexandr Andrievskiy. The photo was taken in Chernovtsy in 1960 and sent to our son who was a student at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev. In October 1944 I went to Chernovtsy from evacuation. My father and son were staying with my brother for some time until I came to take them to Chernovtsy. There was another family living in our former apartment and I received a two-room apartment near the bank where I worked. This was all right with me since I could walk to work from home. Later, when my husband returned from the front we got a bigger apartment. My husband demobilized in March 1946. The hospital administration offered him to continue his service in the army, but he insisted on demobilization. He became the director of a store in Chernovtsy. When our son turned 16 he went to the passport office to get his passport. My husband and I didn't ask him any questions. When it was time for him to fill out the application form for the institute I asked him what nationality was written in his passport. He said it was Russian. I asked him, 'How come you are Russian when your father is Ukrainian and your mother a Jew?' My son said that he took this decision to hurt no one's feelings. Of course, my son was aware that his mother was a Jew, but he didn't care about it. There was an air of internationalism in our family. My husband died in 1976. He was buried in the town cemetery in Chernovtsy. My friends and books help me to make peace with my solitude. I gave my granddaughter Elena a big part of my book collection. I retired from the bank when my time came in 1970. At last I could do what I liked and I became a librarian at the library in the bank. I didn't receive any salary for my work. It was like a public activity.