If Elizaveta Dmitrievna Ryumina had not been deaf, she would have been our active volunteer. She is one of the first to come to all holidays; sometimes she even takes part in dancing in spite of her age. Everybody knows how poor she is, and that is why they give her more attention. Elizaveta is a habitu? of the Hesed library. Though she received no education, she visit the library more often than others do, and thoroughly explains what she would like to read. Her favorite books are concerned with Jewish traditions.

   Elizaveta's life was terribly hard. She was born in 1923 in Donetsk town. Her mother Malka was an accountant. When the war started her father went to the front. In 1941 Elizaveta's mother and she had to escape to Dzerzhinsk town, where her brother lived. It was not safe even in the home front. During a bombing Lizaveta was wounded in her head. The fragment remained inside - she could not have been operated. Her mother was unemployed, they had to sell their clothes or change them for bread. Soon Lizaveta's uncle was moved to Moscow - Malka was driven out of the flat along with her daughter. They moved to Kostanay, where Malka's sisters lived after evacuation from Ukraine. That was the way Elizaveta and her mother appeared in Kazakhstan. Her father never returned.

   Malka used to work on different jobs, but none of them was permanent. Elizaveta soon realized that her mother's problems were caused by her being Jewish.

   Elizaveta's life was even harder. After the injury her hearing was impaired, and she could attend school only for 8 years. She used to work as a sorting operator in the deaf and mute society. She was persecuted as well. Once she was fired on grounds of absence from work. Though she brought a medical certificate the director would not take a look at it. Then she brought an action against him and was rehabilitated, but with the lowest salary.

   "I suffered the same fate as my mother did. I was fired, persecuted, and humiliated for the same reasons as she was. I am proud for being Jewish, for belonging to the great nation with great history. And I am glad that there is a Hesed in Kostanay, which helps those like me - gives food packages, deliver meals…", - Elizaveta says.

   Unfortunately this aid is not so big…

   Elizaveta receives small pension, her life is hard. She is actually a WWII veteran - though she was a child when the war started, but it ruined her life.

Lidiya Kazakevitch