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My grandmother on my mother’s side, Miriam Kogan, was born in the town of Rotmistrovka, Kiev province, in the 1840s. I don’t remember my grandmother’s maiden name. She was a housewife. My grandmother died in 1891 when my mother was eight.
My grandfather on my mother’s side, Nuhim-Leib Kogan, was born in Rotmistrovka in the 1840s. I don’t know what he did for a living. Like all other Jews in the town he was religious. He attended the synagogue and observed all the traditions. After my grandmother died my grandfather got married again. His second wife’s name was Perl. My grandfather died after a surgery he had in Kiev in the 1890s. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery there. I was at his grave with my parents when I was six, in 1925.
My grandfather had three children with his first wife: two daughters, Doba and Polia and a son, Semyon. He had three more children with Perl: Natan, Naum and Fenia. All the children were born in Rotmistrovka.
I guess my mother’s older sister Doba was born in the 1860s. She was much older than my mother since she already had children of her own when my mother was born. After getting married Doba left Rotmistrovka for a neighboring village – I don’t know its name. She had eleven or twelve children. I guess Doba and her husband were religious Jews. In the 1920s Doba’s family moved to Odessa with the younger children. During the war, in 1941 Doba, her husband and four of their children perished in the ghetto in Odessa.
My grandfather on my mother’s side, Nuhim-Leib Kogan, was born in Rotmistrovka in the 1840s. I don’t know what he did for a living. Like all other Jews in the town he was religious. He attended the synagogue and observed all the traditions. After my grandmother died my grandfather got married again. His second wife’s name was Perl. My grandfather died after a surgery he had in Kiev in the 1890s. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery there. I was at his grave with my parents when I was six, in 1925.
My grandfather had three children with his first wife: two daughters, Doba and Polia and a son, Semyon. He had three more children with Perl: Natan, Naum and Fenia. All the children were born in Rotmistrovka.
I guess my mother’s older sister Doba was born in the 1860s. She was much older than my mother since she already had children of her own when my mother was born. After getting married Doba left Rotmistrovka for a neighboring village – I don’t know its name. She had eleven or twelve children. I guess Doba and her husband were religious Jews. In the 1920s Doba’s family moved to Odessa with the younger children. During the war, in 1941 Doba, her husband and four of their children perished in the ghetto in Odessa.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Mirrah Kogan