Sofia Geller was born in 1929 in Bratlsav. Her father worked as a coachman before the war. During the war, she evacuated to Central Asia, where she worked in a collective farm. When she returned to Bratslav after the war, she worked in the city council. She is married to Dovid Geller. She and Dovid have two daughters who live in Moscow.
Other Interviews:
KrishmeleyenenHebrew - the Language of Prayer
With Horse and Wagon to Donbas
"we need to have a wedding!"
Bratslav Matchmaking
Bratslav, Ukraine
Recognizing the hardships and difficulties that returning soldiers and evacuees encountered, many remember the postwar years as the best years of their lives. It was a time of rebuilding and renewal, both literally and metaphorically.
Dovid Geller returned from evacuation in Baku to Zhmerynka, where he lived with his aunts for a few years. He moved to Kiev in 1947 to continue his training as a lathe operator. However, he was drafted into the military in 1950, and served for three years in the Far East. When he finally returned to Zhmerynka again, now five years after the end of the war, he found that there was no life for him in the city; he left instead for Bratslav, where he moved in with his brother. There, he met his wife, Sime-Leye Dikkerman, and it was love at first sight.