Menachem-Nuchem Pisetski and his father-in-law Shlyoma Karasyov

This is my paternal grandfather Menachem-Nuchem Pisetski, standing on the left, and his father-in-law Shlyoma Karasyov. The photo was taken in Odessa in 1903. My grandfather was born to a wealthy family in Odessa in 1878. My grandfather told me that his family was very religious: they followed the kashrut and observed all Jewish holidays. My grandfather attended cheder. Since my grandfather was a tailor he went to the synagogue for tailors located in Remeslennaya Street in the center of Odessa. Shlyoma Karasyov, my maternal great-grandfather, worked as a shammash in that synagogue. Most likely, it was my great-grandfather Shlyoma who introduced my grandfather to my grandmother Riva-Zelda. I never met my great-grandfather Shlyoma; he died in the 1910s before I was born. My grandmother and grandfather got married in 1898. They had a happy marriage: in the first three years their three children were born in Odessa. In 1905 my grandfather, grandmother and their three children moved to Uman, a small provincial town in the west of Ukraine, escaping from the terrible Odessa pogrom that year. My grandfather bought a big and beautiful house with columns in the center of the town and opened a garment shop. His clients were wealthy ladies. I remember my grandfather very well: he was of average height, baldish, had a moustache, but no beard. He went to synagogue regularly. I remember that he put on his tallit and tefillin when he prayed at home. I was five then and remember that I stood beside him and kissed the cubes - tefillin, and my grandfather kissed the edges of his tallit.

Centropa Collection acquired by USHMM

The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. 

USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.

Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC". Please contact collection [at] centropa.org.