This is my husband Michael Veselnitski (first from the right in the third row) and cadets of his military school. This photo was taken in Podolsk, Moscow region, in 1940.
My husband was born in Shterndorf [today Kalininskoye] village near Kherson in 1919. His parents Sheindl and Moisey Veselnitskiye were probably religious. My husband told me that his grandfather Srul took him to the synagogue and wound tefillin on his finger. My husband and his twin brother Semyon in 1932 entered the Jewish Machine Building College in Odessa. They didn't know a word in Russian, but they picked it up soon. After finishing the College they entered an artillery school in Podolsk, but my husband entered it two years before his brother went to study. My husband finished it in 1939. Semyon went to the front before finishing his school. He was at the front in Yelnia near Moscow. In 1942 his family received a notification that he was missing. My husband's younger brother Yakov was killed at the Kursk salient. My husband has two sisters. Maya with her Jewish husband lives in Odessa. Lubov with her Jewish husbend and son lives in USA.
My husband Michael Veselnitski finished the war in Poland. After the Great Patriotic War my husband was chief of the topographic department of the military unit in Neman Kaliningrad region..
