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Part One: The Foundations of the Volftsun Family 21 clothes, and they were much appreciated. "New shoes and pants were moments of great happiness," Rosa recalls. With embarrassment, Iosif remembers one incident when he was five years old. "It was the first day of Passover, and Father gave me a pair of new shoes. I went outside to play in my new shoes and slipped on the smooth soles." He remembers crying bitter tears because he soiled the new shoes so quickly, but Shlomo was wonderful about it. "Dry your tears son, don't worry, we can clean the shoes." But Iosif was so upset. Iosif recalls getting other presents. "I remember my father bought me a toy gun, a cap pistol." As he grew older, Iosif also received small sums of money, which he would take to the store and buy candy. On Hanukkah, the tradition was to give the children Hanukkah gelt: real coins as well as coins made out of chocolate or other sweets. Another tradition the family enjoyed that is still practiced on Hanukkah today is spinning the dreidel (a top made of clay or wood and decorated with Hebrew letters). Education was always important in the Volsun family, and Shlomo understood that education was the best hope for his children to escape the tyranny that he saw was about to engulf the nation. Shlomo insisted that all his children— including the girls—would be educated. Iosif remembers that going to school for the first time was difficult. The family spoke Yiddish at home. Iosif 's two older sisters attended a Jewish school taught in that language, but by the time Iosif was old enough to go to school the Jewish school had been forced to close. So he enrolled in a school where lessons were taught in Ukrainian, of which he didn't know a single word. The other children just laughed at him and for many weeks Iosif had a very hard time. Luckily a Jewish neighbor agreed to help Iosif learn Ukrainian. Iosif is very good with languages so he quickly became proficient, and aer that school wasn't a problem and he made many iends. In the fascinating way that life sometimes works, that neighbor, Moisey Udler, Below: Red flag bearing 1st grade of the Nicholsko Archaeugelskoy School. Bottom: Manya's first grade class at Nikolskoye School in Moscow, 1938. The flag in the background was awarded to the best class. Manya (Iosif 's sister), is on the right end of the top row. many years later became important to the Volsun family in other ways. These were days when Shlomo had time for the small diversions he allowed himself. Shlomo wasn't the type of father who would play catch with his children or do recreational activities on Shabbat aernoons. Shlomo worked very hard six days a week, and when he wasn't working, it was Shabbat and he was at the synagogue, praying and studying. He had no hobbies like modern fathers do. Iosif has only a small number of memories of his father being playful or enjoying himself. One of the

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