Naum Poliak’s mother's cousin Tania Yampolskaya and brothers Mendel and Aron Gabovich

From left to right: Tania Yampolskaya, my mother's cousin (Gabovich), and brothers Mendel and Aron Gabovich. This photograph was taken in Belaya Tserkov around 1916.
Grandfather Kalman owned a mill near the church and was an independent and a well-to-do man. They had 18 children, only 9 of which survived - six daughters and three sons. He gave education to all of them. His daughters married successful businessmen.

After Esther there was uncle Mendel. Uncle Mendel married his cousin Rahil. They had four children. The next one was mamma's brother Aron Gabovich. He lived in Kiev. He had two children.
All children got Jewish education. Besides, students from Kiev gave them lessons at home. They studied all general subjects: literature, history and mathematics. Although their parents spoke Yiddish at home, the children spoke fluent Russian and Ukrainian.

The sons took to business and the daughters married well-to-do Jews successfully. Kolia (he was called Kalman in the Yiddish way), the son of my mother's brother Aron Gabovich wàs on the front. He was born in 1923 and he was recruited in the army. He was captured by the Germans. He had fair hair and he didn't look like a Jew and so, he managed to survive. He pretended he was a Belarus. His name Gabovich also sounded like a Bielorussian name. After the German captivity he was sent to the Stalin's camps on Kolyma. He returned an invalid from there. He wasn't allowed to live in Kiev. He left for Odessa and worked there as a mechanic. Later his feet stopped functioning due to the years in camps. In 1989 he left for Israel, but he died on the way.