Homage to Maria and Samuil Levin

It is a little sad to start my first blog entry with sad news. But let me pay respect to Maria Levin (née Kogan), who passed away on September 2, 2007, in Toronto, Canada, at the age of 86. Aunt Maria, as we used to call her, was the wife of my grandfather’s dear brother Samuil Levin, who himself passed away just two months ago at the age of 88. She was a wonderful person, always smiling, cheerful, energetic, full of enthusiasm and love of life. This is how I will always remember her. When I last saw her in September 2004 in Toronto and when talking to her on the phone, it always felt as if I was not talking to an elderly person, but to a woman in the prime of her life, both mentally and physically.

She was born in the town of Krichev in the present-day Belarus on August 20, 1921. She lived in Leningrad before marrying Uncle Samuil in 1950. He was an army doctor, so they would often move, from Belarus to Kamchatka, then to Latvia. They finally settled in Jurmala near Riga, where Uncle Samuil worked as chief neurologist at a military rehabilitation center. Throughout the years following World War II, they supported the family of my grandfather Aron Levin (killed in action at the Volkhov/Leningrad front in 1942), both morally and materially, for which my deepest gratitude and respect. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, they found themselves part of the unwanted Russian-speaking minority in Latvia and moved to Toronto, Canada, together with their children and grandchildren.

Aunt Maria and Uncle Samuil had lived a long and happy life together, and they passed away almost at the same time. They are survived by their children Sofa Perelman and Simon Levin, their granddaughters Eugenia and Lina Perelman, and their infant great-grandson Alexander Jacob Chterental.

They belonged to the war generation, underwent enormous trials and difficulties, lost many of their most precious loved ones at the hands of the Nazis, and yet remained loving, humble, compassionate and caring people. It is now our turn to carry on these values into the world. They will live as long as their memory is alive in our hearts.

Here you can find out more about the history and genealogy of the family Levin.