Thank you to Liza Uchitel, Care Manager JSSA, for assisting in obtaining the interview.
Born in Leningrad, Russia, USSR,1937.
She survived the Siege of Leningrad (September 1941). In May 1942, “we were taken by train in the last group leaving the city to escape from famine and a disease-stricken city.”
Although she was very young at the time, she remembers suffering from hunger and disease, biting cold, and experiencing the terror of air raids and artillery shelling. She recalls visiting her aunt’s apartment building when a bomb went off. Her family was miraculously saved by sheer chance, being in the other part of the house. The city’s water supply was damaged. She remembers her mom crying bitterly as her hands froze again and again, while she tried to get water from the Fontanka River in the dead of winter.
In May 1942, she along with her mother and brother were evacuated to Kazakhstan. She stayed there until 1945. She reunited with her maternal grandmother and her aunt in Leningrad when she returned.
Her father first participated in the Winter War with Finland as a Red Army soldier. After the Winter War, when the war began in Russia, he signed a contract to work in Kalyma, Siberia, where conditions were harsh. Since he mined rare elements and gold, he was spared being drafted during World War II and was very lucky to survive the war.
Her mother was starving while taking care of her children, L.L. and her younger brother.
After the war, L.L. worked as a railroad engineer, developing new transportation projects before immigrating to Israel. At age 75, she moved to the United States to join her only son and did not work.
Today she lives alone in Rockville. Her son, a materials scientist lives nearby, and a grandson, a businessman resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
She came to the US late in life and was not able to work. L.L. attends a Russian language adult day care center. Recently she developed a new hobby – painting. She proudly displays her colorful work on the living room walls in her apartment.
“I have been a patient of Dr. Jay Samuels for more than 10 years. Both the doctor and his staff are exceptionally attentive and professional.”
She feels very lucky that, thanks to Dr. Samuels’ professionalism, she can retain most of her teeth and smile with confidence. I am very, very grateful to the dentist and his office, as well as to JSSA, and my Care Manager, who support and help me navigate all the complexities of my life in this country. She appreciates the Alpha-Omega Henry Schein Cares Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program, which connects people like her with skilled dentists. The survivor is proud of her Jewish identity, and she now feels comfortable, loved, and supported and a part of the community.