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My grandfather on my father’s side, Gersh Kogan, was born in the town of Zinkovtsy, Podolsk province [Vinnitsa region at present], in the 1850s. My grandfather’s family was religious. They observed all Jewish traditions and my father was raised religiously. In the pictures I have of my grandfather, he wears traditional Jewish clothes, a beard and payot and a yarmulka or a hat. I don’t know what my grandfather did for a living. He died in the 1890s.
My grandmother was born in the 1850s. I don’t know her first name or her maiden name. She was a housewife. My grandmother died in the early 1880s, when my father was a small boy. Besides my father my grandparents had two sons and a daughter from what I know.
I have no information about one of the sons, but my father’s older brother Zalman Kogan lived in Chernovtsy. Zalman had a son and a daughter: Moisey and Musia. Moisey moved to Odessa before the Revolution of 1917 [1]. Musia and her family stayed in Chernovtsy. Later they moved to Izmail. When Izmail became part of the USSR in 1940 [cf. Annexation of Bessarabia to the Soviet Union] [2] I saw Musia for the first time – she came to Odessa to take her husband to the clinic of a well-known doctor Buchshtab. Musia told us about anti-Semitism existing during the Romanian regime [cf. Annexation of Bessarabia to Romania] [3]. Musia’s husband was sick and died in hospital before the war. Musia survived the Great Patriotic War [4], and after the war she was the manager of a pharmacy in Izmail for many years.
My father’s sister Rachel emigrated to America in 1915. Rachel was married, but I don’t remember her husband’s name. Her daughters moved to Argentina later on. She corresponded with my father before the Great Patriotic War. After the war we didn’t receive any letters.
My grandmother was born in the 1850s. I don’t know her first name or her maiden name. She was a housewife. My grandmother died in the early 1880s, when my father was a small boy. Besides my father my grandparents had two sons and a daughter from what I know.
I have no information about one of the sons, but my father’s older brother Zalman Kogan lived in Chernovtsy. Zalman had a son and a daughter: Moisey and Musia. Moisey moved to Odessa before the Revolution of 1917 [1]. Musia and her family stayed in Chernovtsy. Later they moved to Izmail. When Izmail became part of the USSR in 1940 [cf. Annexation of Bessarabia to the Soviet Union] [2] I saw Musia for the first time – she came to Odessa to take her husband to the clinic of a well-known doctor Buchshtab. Musia told us about anti-Semitism existing during the Romanian regime [cf. Annexation of Bessarabia to Romania] [3]. Musia’s husband was sick and died in hospital before the war. Musia survived the Great Patriotic War [4], and after the war she was the manager of a pharmacy in Izmail for many years.
My father’s sister Rachel emigrated to America in 1915. Rachel was married, but I don’t remember her husband’s name. Her daughters moved to Argentina later on. She corresponded with my father before the Great Patriotic War. After the war we didn’t receive any letters.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Mirrah Kogan