Leib Gotkin
I was born on January 23, 1927 in a town in the Dnieper region in Ukraine, to an observant family who spoke Yiddish. At the beginning of the war we fled to Kazakhstan. We went from train to train一in the goods carriage一until we reached our destination. I lived in Kazakhstan until 1944. We had no warm clothing. Our food was leftovers from the village dining room. Already as a child I worked and helped my mother. I worked in the barn with the cows. In 1944 after the liberation of Ukraine we returned to live in the city of Dnieper. I finished school there and went to college to become a train captain.
Afterward, I moved to Georgia and worked in a metallurgical factory and finished night school to become a mechanical engineer in Rostbif, Georgia. I married a Jewish woman from Dnieper, and we had four children. The oldest passed away, and from the others I have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. My great-granddaughter became religious and married a Kollel student in Ashdod. I am so happy that I can learn Torah at Colel Chabad in Ashdod with my teacher, Rabbi Gedalia.
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