Out of the Holocaust

Description

The details of my (and my brother's) birth are unknown. My memories begin in Latvia. DNA tests strongly indicate that we are of Belarusian-Jewish origin, meaning that we might have been born in southeastern Latvia or in Belarus bordering on southern Latvia. Our mother is listed as "Miss Sinegins" in our personal records. Russian authorities stated our years of birth, mine 1937, my brother's 1939. We plucked the specific dates out a bowl. In 1943, I was about 6, my brother about 4 or 5, when our assumed mother felt it necessary to turn us over to the Baldone Children's Home in Latvia due to ill health and extreme poverty. About a year later, the orphans and caretakers at that home trekked to Riga, Latvia's capital city, to be transported to the Majori Children's Home. We were there but a few months when we all were transported by ship, under German oversight, to Germany in October, 1944. We along with many other orphans resided at several homes and residences....