Pinkhas Trachtenbroit

This is a picture of my grandfather on my father's side Pinkhas Trachtenbroit. The photo was taken in Briceni in 1935. My grandfather was born in the 1860s in the town of Briceni, Bessarabia, which belonged to Russia before 1918 and then became part of Romania. My grandmother, Motel Trachtenbroit, nee Broonshtein, was born in Mogilyov-Podolsk, Vinnitsa region, in the 1860s. I don't know how my grandparents met. Motel and Pinkhas had seven children: four sons and three daughters. My father told me little about his childhood. His father owned a small stationery store. My grandmother was a housewife. My grandfather's store provided enough income for them to make their living and afford education for their children. My grandparents' family was religious. I don't know whether my grandfather prayed at home since we didn't live with them, but on Saturdays and Jewish holidays my grandparents went to the synagogue. They celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays and followed the kashrut. I loved my grandparents on my father's side dearly. My grandfather Pinkhas was a short, slim man. He wore elegant suits, light shirts and ties. He wore a hat to go out. He worked at the store and I didn't see much of him. During the war we were in the ghetto in Kopaygorod, Vinnitsa region, 150 kilometers from home. Many Jewish families lived in Kopaygorod, and we were put into the houses of local Jews. This area hadn't been turned into a ghetto at that time yet. There was no barbed wire, but we couldn't leave either because we were encircled by Romanian soldiers, who guarded us. There was a typhoid epidemic in the village. My mother fell ill and then my father and I got typhoid. There was no medication. Many people died. We had high fever. When we regained consciousness we were told that my grandfather Pinkhas and my father's sister Adel had died of typhoid. Every morning dead corpses were picked up and put onto a horse-driven cart. My grandfather and Aunt Adel were buried in a common grave and we don't know where it is.