Abram Rybakov

This is my older brother Abram Rybakov. This photo was taken in Kishinev in 1935. Abram was born in 1915. He finished a gymnasium in Rezina. In Bucharest he passed his exams for a Bachelor's degree and became a teacher in a village. Abram was in love with Lusia, a girl from our town. Her father was a wealthy Jewish tobacco dealer. Abram and Lusia wanted to get married, but my father was against their marriage. He said that they belonged to different layers of society. Abram and Lusia couldn't get married without their parents' consent: this was a rule with Jewish families, but when Abram came to Rezina he spent all his time at Lusia's home. When the Great Patriotic War began in 1941, Abram evacuated to Uzbekistan with Lusia's family. Lusia and Abram lived together without getting married. Lusia told my brother Moisey later that Abram had volunteered to the front and had perished in Konigsberg in 1945.