Sher Sofiya Silimovna (1919)

Sher Sofiya Silimovna (1.03.1919, Daugavpils) – shop assistant. Born into the family of small ironmonger Sher Silimon (1870, Viļāni – 1932, Riga) and Sher Fruma (1880(?), Poland – 1942, Viļāni). In 1936 she graduated from a Jewish gymnasium in Daugavpils. In 1936—38 she worked as a shop assistant at Gelman's confectionery shop in Daugavpils. In 1938—41 she worked as a footwear shop assistant at Kadyshevich's shop in Daugavpils.
At the start of the war Sh. was evacuated. En route she was concussed and in 1941 was treated at the Sernur District Hospital in the Mari ASSR. Until 1943 she worked at the Yusupov collective farm in the Shafrikan District of the Uzbek SSR. In 1943—44 she worked at the Shafrikan wine factory. In 1944—46 Sh. was a nurse's aide at the Shafrikan district hospital. In 1946 she returned to Riga and until 1948 worked as a buffet attendant at a branch of the Riga restaurant “Luna.” In 1948—49 she was a saleswoman at a kiosk of the Latpishchekhimsoyuz association. In 1952 she worked as a shop assistant at the Riga City Fish Cooperative. From 1955 to 1964 she worked as a shop assistant and street-stall vendor at shops of the city industrial-trade, food-trade, and public-catering offices.

Sh.'s sister, Khayut (Sher) Fanya (1905(?), Rēzekne), left Latvia in 1936 and in the 1960s lived in Israel. The Holocaust took the lives of Sh.'s relatives and loved ones: Sh.'s mother, Sher Fruma (1880(?), Poland – 1942, Viļāni), was killed in Viļāni; Sh.'s brother and sisters, Sher Blyuma (1920, Viļāni – 1942, Viļāni), Vapne (Sher) Tuyba (Taube) (1908, Viļāni – 1941, Līvāni), and Sher Yakov (1922, Viļāni – 1942, Viļāni), were shot. Sh.'s brother, Sher Isai (1910, Viļāni – 1942(?)), died at the front near Pskov. Sh.'s surviving brother and sister, Sher Tevel (1906, Viļāni) and Goltsberger (Sher) Elka (1917, Viļāni), still lived in Latvia in the 1960s. Sher Tevel left Latvia with his family in 1964.

A. Norman

Sher Tevel (1906, Viļāni) – brother
Goltsberger (Sher) Elka (1917, Viļāni) – sister
Sher Silimon (1870, Viļāni – 1932, Riga) – father
Sher Fruma (1880(?), Poland – 1942, Viļāni) – mother
Khayut (Sher) Fanya (1905(?), Rēzekne) – sister
Sher Blyuma (1920(?), Viļāni – 1942, Viļāni) – sister
Sher Isai (1910(?), Viļāni – 1942(?)) – brother
Sher Yakov (1922(?), Viļāni – 1942, Viļāni) – brother
Vapne (Sher) Tuyba (Taube) (1908, Viļāni – 1941, Līvāni) – sister