Tamara Chonovitz-Apelbaum remembers:

...Ira and I grew up at Jelena Stepanovna’s home, called her mother and loved her very much. Jelena Stepanovna had two daughters, Irina ir Liusia... Liusia disappeared during the war, I do not remember her. I was very happy with Jelena Stepanovna, she loved me and my cousin very much, and her daughter Irina took care of us. My name was Sara, just like my grandma‘s, but Jelena Stepanovna named me Tamara. At the end of the war, when I was four years old, my mother came to get me, but of course, I did not want to go with her and I cried a lot. I called my mother “auntie” and I hid under the table saying: “how can you take me with you”...

Israel, November 30, 2004