Volko and Klara Redko

This is a picture of my brother Volko Redko and my sister Klara Redko. They were photographed after my brother moved to Moscow to study in the Pedagogical College. This photo was taken in Kiev in 1939. In 1932 my brother went to study in a rabfak in Kharkov. Klara went to study in Kiev College of Food Industry. Klara finished college in 1939 and received a job assignment to Stanislav , present-day Ivano-Frankovsk. She rented a room from a local Polish family. They treated her like one of their own. Volko moved to Moscow after finishing the Industrial School in Kharkov. He read a lot since childhood and since 16 he wrote poems in Yiddish. He was going to enter the Jewish department of Moscow Pedagogical College. My father fell severely ill in 1939. There was something wrong with his legs: he couldn't walk and became an invalid. He couldn't work any longer. His doctor, a surgeon, told him there was no cure. My younger sister and I studied at school. My mother didn't work. My brother switched to the extramural department in his college and moved to Kiev. He went to work in the editor's office of 'Der Shtern', 'The Star' newspaper, published in Yiddish. There was a big team of Jewish writers and journalists. My brother's poems and articles were published in 'Der Shtern', and the Kiev newspapers 'Komunist' [Communist] and 'Pravda Ukrainy' [The Truth of Ukraine], published in Russian and Ukrainian. Volko also wrote reviews on Jewish literature. Sometimes he took me with him to meetings of Jewish poets. Volko believed that whatever I was going to do in life, I had to know the Jewish literature. Volko finished college in 1940 and received a diploma with honors. My brother was the pride of our family and my idol.