This is my family on vacation in a village near Kishinev, where we rented a hut from a villager, in summer 1935. My sister Rahil is in the 1st row, the 1st from the left, sitting beside her is our mother, Nena Wainshelboim, wearing a dark kerchief, I am standing on her right and she is embracing me. On the right is my father's sister Basia Bobis, embracing her daughter, Minna Bobis, who is wearing a white dress. Basia's husband, Matus Bobis, and a neighbor's boy whose name I don’t remember are standing.
My father belonged to the progressive Jewish intelligentsia. He worked in the Jewish Health Organization, this organization was financed by the Joint. My father worked as a children’s doctor there. I remember staying in his office at times. His visitors were children and their mothers. His work was much needed and so was the organization supporting poor Jewish families and mothers in Bessarabia. Mothers were provided with consultations, baby food and medications for free.
In summer children went to special camps and recreation houses in rural areas. My sister or I didn’t go there. My father would have never taken advantage of his position to arrange for his children’s recreation. Mama and we rented a room in a village for the summer. My father visited us once a week. He spent all his time at work.
My father's sister Basia was married to Matus Bobis, a Jewish man. He was also involved in Zionist activities. During the Soviet period he worked as a proofreader with a newspaper. He missed a mistake in his newspaper and, being scared of the many arrests happening all around, threw himself under a train. Basia and Minna, their little daughter, evacuated to the Northern Caucasus together with Fania, where they perished when the Fascists came there.
