Naigauzen (Neihousen) Meilakh (Meilach) Meerovich (30 November 1921, Rēzekne, Latvia) — worker.
Meilakh Naigauzen was born into the family of a tailor-craftsman, Meer Naigauzen, and a housewife, Sora Naigauzen.
Note: In 1941, Meilakh’s parents and two of his sisters (their names are not recorded in the documents) were shot by the Nazis. His brother Boris Meerovich Naigauzen was killed at the front during the Second World War (dates of birth and death are not recorded). Apart from Meilakh, only one brother survived: Moishe (Mozus-Vulf) Meerovich Naigauzen (1920, Rēzekne).
Meilakh completed seven grades at the Rēzekne Jewish School (1929–1936). From 1936 to 1941, he worked as a shop assistant in a private textile shop. As the Nazis approached Rēzekne, he managed to leave the city by bicycle and was subsequently evacuated to Khvalynsk, Saratov Oblast, where he was conscripted into a labour battalion in 1941. In 1942, he was transferred to the Latvian Division, fought on the front during the Second World War, was severely wounded, and remained in hospital until 1944. In 1945, he returned to Latvia.
He worked in Riga as a security guard at the Central Department Store of the Glavosobgastronom Office (1946–1949), as a warehouse worker at the Riga section of “Myasomolmontazh” (1949), and as a photographer’s apprentice and bookbinder at the “Rigas Foto” artel (1951–1952). Owing to a sharp deterioration in his health, he did not work until 1962. After medical treatment, he served as facilities manager at the “Darbs” factory from 1962 to 1971.
In his marriage to Basya Aronovna Naigauzen (née Soloveichik) (1926, Osipovichi, Belarus), a daughter, Sofya Meilakhovna Naigauzen, was born in 1959 in Moscow. Meilakh also adopted Basya’s son from her first marriage to Samuil Moiseyevich Bregman, giving him his patronymic and surname: Boris Meilakhovich Naigauzen (1949, Moscow).
In 1971, Meilakh Naigauzen received permission to emigrate to Israel, where since 1966 his wife’s parents—Aron Ekhelevich Soloveichik (1898, Shumyachi village, Smolensk Oblast) and Maria Lvovna Soloveichik (1903, Osipovichi)—as well as her brother, Lev Aronovich Soloveichik (1936, Orsha, Belarus), had been living.
Family:
Meyer Naigauzen — father
Sora Naigauzen — mother
Boris Meerovich Naigauzen — brother
Moishe (Mozus-Vulf) Meyerovich Naigauzen (1920, Rēzekne) — brother
Basya Aronovna Naigauzen (née Soloveichik) (1926) — wife
Boris Meilakhovich Naigauzen (1949) — son
Sofya Meilakhovna Naigauzen (1959) — daughter
Aron Ekhelevich Soloveichik (1898) — father-in-law
Maria Lvovna Soloveichik (1903) — mother-in-law
Lev Aronovich Soloveichik (1936) — brother-in-law