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Part Two: The Braverman Family 79 in Yiddish. Aer receiving a letter, the family would read it and then Iosif would burn it. Thus there are no surviving letters mailed to the family in Russia. Only the letters that Malka wrote and mailed to Zhenya survived; they are written with a quill pen, stained by Malka's tears. From 1946 to 1959, Lyubov did not see Zhenya and her first visit was aught with fear. For the eight days Zhenya was in Moscow in 1959, the entire family was paralyzed with fear. It was the height of the Cold War. She arrived alone. No one in the family would dare go to visit Zhenya in her hotel. Informers would notice, and they would be reported. Such was the terror in those years. The family resorted to elaborate practices to make visits possible. Aer taking a number of trams, satisfied that she was not being followed, Zhenya made her way to visit her family at Rosa's apartment. Lyubov and Iosif—in civilian clothes, never in uniform—would sneak over in the middle of the night. Despite the fear, Lyubov enjoyed the visit. "It was so good to be together," Zhenya says. "Lyubov was always laughing"—that is typical of how people remember her—"I never saw her sad. Not once." Zhenya also noticed how intelligent Lyubov was. "She always struck me as the smartest in the family." Zhenya came to visit Moscow two more times, the last time to visit her mother before she died. On one visit, she came with her children. On her last visit she brought her husband Abel, who Above le: Lyubov Braverman in Moscow, 1944. On back: "To dear and loving brother Misha—Please return with a full victory over the Nazi occupiers." Above right: Lyubov Braverman in Moscow, 1950. fell in love with the entire family. He especially loved Lyubov, who was the sweetest and most outgoing of the Braverman clan. Zhenya had spent all her money to buy presents for the family. Russia in those days had shortages of everything, except, perhaps, the undying loyalty and love of a close family.

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