70 years ago on this day ...

... my grandfather Aron Levin was killed in action at the age of 34 while serving as a private in the Soviet Army at the Volkhov-Leningrad Front. I related what I know about grandfather Aron in my previous post about my father a few days ago. Since then I spoke to his niece and my aunt Sofiya Kozlova, who told me what she heard about him from her mother and Aron's sister Berta Levina. I learned from her that Aron was a playful boy who used to make and play jokes on other kids.

Aron Levin

Aron (left), his wife Hana, and his siblings Musya, Samuil and Berta Levin
Vitebsk, 8 September 1936

I also possess letters that Aron sent to his wife Dasha from the front line.

Aron Levin (born 1908) is said to have inherited his father's entrepreneurial skills. But his life was cut short at the age of 34 as he was killed in action on June 28, 1942, at the Leningrad-Volkhov Front after drafting into the Soviet Army as a private. He didn't know that his father Simkhe (68) and his elder brother Moishe (39) were executed by the German Wehrmacht (regular armed forces) in August 1941 together with some 60 other adult Jewish men of Lapichi. In August 1942 the rest of the Jewish population of Lapichi (mostly women and children) were executed by the Nazis and local collaborators. Among them were my father's grandmother Chaya (64), Moishe's wife Fanya (28) and her 2 sons Genya (4) and Zyama (1), my father's aunt Dasha (31) and her 3 sons Gerik (5), Roma (3) and Zyama (10m), and some other relatives.