Zakhar Benderskiy with his siblings

Zakhar Benderskiy with his siblings

This is a photo of my brothers, my sister and me. It was taken in 1920. From left to right are Fivel, Frima , I, and my younger brother Wolf. The photo was taken for the family album on the occasion of Fivel's birthday. Fivel was born in 1908, Frima, followed in 1910. I was born in 1912 and Wolf, was born in 1917. Fivel left for Palestine with my paternal grandfather in 1932. Fivel worked as a laborer in Ramat-Gan. Later he studied at college. After that he got a job in the logistics department of a soap factory and worked there until his retirement. Fivel and his family lived in Ramat-Gan. He died in 2000. Frima finished a private French school in Kishinev. After this she went to study at the Medical Academy in Belgium. She met a Romanian princess there. The princess invited Frima to visit her when she came to Bucharest. Upon graduating my sister went to visit the princess. A new hospital was being built in Kishinev, and my sister was appointed the supervisor of the therapeutic unit there. In 1936 Uncle Erik won a green card for a woman to go to Palestine, and he offered it to Frima. She decided to go. Uncle Erik and Fivel met her and took her to their kibbutz. Later my sister got a job as a doctor. She got married. They lived in Haifa. They had two daughters. They live in Israel now. When Frima and her husband retired they sold their house in Haifa and moved to the old people's home 'Golden Age'. My sister feels lonely in Israel. Her daughters live their own life. Wolf finished the Electro-Technical College in Kishinev. He was married and worked as an engineer at the electric appliances factory in Kishinev. My mother died in 1938. My father sold the house and moved to Wolf. In 1940 Moldavia joined the USSR. Kishinev became a Soviet town. Wolf changed his name to Vladimir to obtain his Soviet passport. He was taken to the army. During the war the electric appliances factory was in the Ural. My brother returned from evacuation in 1944. The factory facilities in Kishinev were destroyed. Its employees and their families lived in the barracks that were storage facilities before the war. There was no heating. The barrack was heated by self-made stoves from sheet iron. My brother received an apartment in 1953 when he was deputy director of the factory. Wolf left for Israel in 1985. His son had left for Israel in the late 1970s. Wolf and his younger daughter went there after Wolf retired.
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