Yosl Kogan
(Tulchyn 2009)

Iosif Abramovich Kogan was born in 1927 in Bershad'. His father, Avrom, a soap-maker, died during the Great Hunger in 1933. His mother Gitl was a candy-maker, and he had a half-brother Peysye and a sister Manye. Iosif was educated in a Jewish school in Bershad', where he lived until the outbreak of the Second World War. During the Romanian occupation, he and his family were taken to the Bershad' ghetto. In 1944, Kogan was liberated by the Red Army. Immediately afterward, he was drafted. He fought at the front for two months and participated in the liberation of Berlin in 1945. After serving in the Red Army for seven years, he moved to Zhabokrychin and in 1960 to Tul'chyn.

Aheym, briderlekh, ahym (Homeward, brothers, homeward) 

Photographer: Artur Frątczak