Tasia Jolly collection

Consists of material related to the life of Tassia (Tasia, Taisiya) Jolly (born Taisia Hlamionok, later Tchernoff), originally of Polotsk, Soviet Union. The collection contains Tasia's memoir, in which she describes her childhood as a non-Jew under Stalin. Her father, who opposed communism, was killed in 1937, and in 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the citizens of her Polotsk were deported to the Salaspils concentration camp. From there, the adult women were sent away (Tasia's mother perished in Treblinka) and the children were left alone in the camp. Due to petitions from local women in Riga and from the Russian Orthodox Church, the children were released and Tasia was adopted by the Tcheroff family at the age of 7. She describes her life with the family and the end of the war, when she discovered that her mother had not survived. Also includes a photograph of Tasia at age 7 in 1943 and a testimony by Ludmilla Obolensky-Flam, Tasia's adoptive sister, who recounts her memories of life under Nazi occupation and of Tasia's adoption.