MOSCOW. EARLY
SIXTIES
The mysterious photo
Since
1961 the big box full of old pictures was kept in a huge wardrobe in my
parent's apartment in Moscow.
The
oldest family member, Bela Libkind (born Glikin), was the guardian of
the relics of the entire family. Her husband, Samuel Libkind, died in
1944 but she tenderly continued a relationship with his brother and
sisters. Old pictures she showed to her grandchildren shone through her
youth and the youth of her husband's clan. Age collapsed their beauty;
time erased their native places. One of them left Russia at the
beginning of the century; the trace of his life went with the wind.
Bela mentioned
all their names, sometimes told stories but kept the secret about one
picture. The only recognizable person on that photo was a famous
scientist Albert Einstein in a company of a man and a woman. Who those
people were, and how Einstein was related to our family I did not
know. The picture was signed on Hebrew. Our ancestors’ language
made on us, young generation, an impression of mystery, so we have
never asked our grandmother what was written there. Years flew fast,
and in 1981 the box full of portraits of family members left with us
native Moscow to settle in Montreal.
This
picture together with many others laid in the same old box until 1996.
That year I have started my geneology journey after sudden
meeting with my mom's cousin whom I didn't see for over 25 years. He
came from
Nizhniy Novgorod
on a business trip to Canada and visited me in Montreal. We are related
on
Libkinds' side, and a long interesting research that followed his visit
was directly connected to Libkinds all over the world. But the
story I want to tell is about one man, and it began with the
picture above. Turn the
page...
