Trafika Europe 12 - French Bon-Bons

Marat Baskin

renounce your own people.” So I became a Jew in my passport. Then she said:

“You must marry a Jew. So many of your people were killed in the war that those who remained alive should be together to continue the race.” So I married Galya, the daughter of Naum the carpenter, also from Krasnopol. My mom Akulina was glad about my choice: “Thank God,” she I said, “that with my own eyes I saw your wife, and now I know she has kind eyes, this is the main thing in life, son, the most important thing. As my father used to say, “Krasa yak rasa: syidze da vechera, a dabrynya i u nochi bachna”. When we had a son, we decided to call him Stepan - in memory of Akulina’s husband, but she refused to hear it. “We can give the name Stepan to someone else. Your dad had only you--you were his only hope. Name your son after him.” So we named our son Shimon. “He is a copy of his grandpa,” my mother Akulina said. “All your people looked like Etta, but he is the spitting image of Shloyme. You can name one of your kids Stepan, when you have five kids like I do. Then I won’t

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