Number 83: Sophie lived in a beautifully furnished one room annex of their house,  when in 1914 the family was expelled from Sasmaka. Older brother Leo, having escaped the army, was already in South Africa with cousin Samuel, son of Benno’s brother Meyer and Uncle Samuel  – Benno’s other brother!

Seven children remained and, at 18 Sophie,  took on the responsible elder sibling role. In Voronezh, riding by bicycle, she worked for a wealthy Jewish family teaching their children German. (They also had French, Hebrew, piano and violin teachers!). Sometimes Sophie brought back a half-loaf of bread to her family. On special occasions: A full loaf!! Despite their poverty, Sophie managed to arrange complimentary tickets to La Traviata, Rigoletto and other Operas.

Occasionally drunk rampaging Cossacks on horseback threatened the Werbeloffs. Sophie resorted to explaining that they weren’t Jewish, despite the candles burning in their home! Ida was named “Wergbelove” at School  – a non-Jewish surname. A kind Russian Bolshevik woman named Hadara sometimes hid them. Somehow they weren’t harmed.

In Nerekhta, before leaving for Voronezh, a German Prisoner of War named “Nussbaum”, apparently a well-known philosopher,  (Uncle Solly thought Austrian, probably Jewish), walking outside the nearby prison, with guards on either side, spotted Sophie and started writing her interesting letters. Sophie wrote back! The system developed of Ida playing outside, taking a letter that Nussbaum dropped to Sophie and when Sophie responded, Ida was again the messenger. They wrote about their respective experiences of War and Expulsion. After Benno’s passing,  Sophie stopped corresponding. Nussbaum was “mad about her” and in Voronezh Sophie received a condolence letter from him. Reading aloud, the pain of Benno’s passing still fresh, all in the family sobbed: “Waarom leiderd de mensch?” “Weil – do – liebst”. (“Why does the person suffer”? “Because you live”).  Sophie wanted to show the letters to Sascha but, heartbreakingly for her, Customs Officials burnt them.

When back in Latvia, the gossipers of Sasmaka told Sophie that Sascha had fallen in love with other women. But Sascha called for Sophie, who left for Cape Town – and the rest is history!

The above stories per Ida Lees and Solly Werbeloff in early 1985.