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Family Is All That Matters Family Is All That Matters 6 B E G I N N I N G I N T H E M I D D L E Prologue Prologue Iosif Israel Volsun entered university in the early autumn of 1941, hoping to finish his promising education at the prestigious Moscow State Technical University named aer N.E. Bauman. But as they had done before, historic events ustrated a Volsun dream. The German army, which had invaded Russia in June of that year, threatened the capital city. The ont was a mere 12 miles om Moscow. Chaos reigned in the city; looting was widespread, and then martial law was declared. Though Iosif could have participated in his university's mandatory evacuation, he chose instead to drop out and remain with his family. This was a difficult time for many families, and the Volsuns were no exception. The Volsuns—Iosif 's father Shlomo, mother Hava, and sisters Ida, Inna, and Manya—were ordered to evacuate to Tashkent, then the capital of Uzbekistan. The transportation was very primitive. Railroad boxcars were outfitted with wooden compartments and crammed with people. On such a train, the Volsuns le on October 14, 1941; they arrived in Tashkent four months later. The journey was long and difficult for everyone, but it almost killed Iosif. It was very cold and food was scarce. At every stop Iosif went looking for food. A letter om his older sister Rosa, who had been draed into the army as an officer and senior medic upon graduation om medical technical school, identified Iosif and the Volsuns as relations of an army officer, therefore allowing him to secure om military authorities one thousand rubles and, on occasion, some food rations. The letter helped keep them alive. As the train made its long journey south to Tashkent, it would stop at various towns for an hour or two. With the precious letter in hand, 17-year-old Iosif would go to the local military commandant and present the letter in a bid to get food to bring back to his family waiting on the train. Sometimes the letter worked and sometimes it didn't. The food was never enough to do more than take the edge off their hunger, but their rations were more than many other people received. Then, one day not long aer the train le Moscow for the four- month journey, something truly ightening happened. Iosif had gone looking for food as usual, but when he got back to the train station, the train with his family had already le. Iosif was beside himself with fear. There was nothing to be done but wait for the next train and try to follow them. But there was no guarantee that he would ever find them. Iosif desperately tried to board train aer train, but was always denied. Eventually he boarded a train without asking permission, but the only place he could sit was on a flat car, exposed to the weather. It was November and terribly cold in the wind. As the train passed one town aer another, sometimes stopping, sometimes not, Iosif would stand up and shout for his family. Eventually he was too cold and weak to do much shouting and he became truly aaid he would never see his family again. But Providence was looking aer the Volsun family. At one small train station, Iosif heard his father's voice. Shlomo had been waiting at the station, shouting Iosif 's name at every passing train. Iosif 's train wasn't scheduled to stop at this particular station; the only choice was to jump. The impact of the ozen ground nearly killed him. Iosif 's leg was badly damaged, but he was reunited with his father. Half-dead om the cold and the injury, Iosif was taken to the warm train where his family was waiting. His sisters carefully dressed his leg and nursed him back to health. The family was united again. With the beginnings of the Volsun and Braverman stories vague, and the endings not quite upon us, we have started in the middle, recounting a time like so many when a tumultuous societal situation dictated the trajectory of lives, yet the strength of individuals, the solidarity of the family, and God's blessing allowed the future that we now know as the past. Other parts of our story revolve around this historic middle, and around Iosif Volsun, Shlomo and Hava's only son who survived into adulthood. He le a destroyed Ukraine as a

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