Biography
Avram Romas is the son of Salomon (b. 1902, Vilna) and Rachil (b. 1905, Kaunas) Romas. He was born on March 12, 1929 in Kaunas Lithuania where his father owned a textile store. Avram attended the Hebrew language Schwabe Gymnasium. His younger brother Moshe was born in 1935. In June 1941, shortly before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Soviets deported the Romas family to Siberia. Salomon was sent to a prison camp in Sverdlovsk. His mother had to work in the fields. After five years, the family returned to Vilna. However soon afterwards, the Soviets rearrested Rachil since she had returned without proper permission and imprisoned her for another two years. While she was in prison, Salomon and the two boys returned to Siberia. Following her release, the family lived in Irkutsk where Avram studied economics. There he met a fellow student Rina Ilgovsky.
Rina Ilgovsky Romas is the daughter of Gedalyahu (b. 1893) and Hadassah (b. 1895). She was born in Kaunas on October 27, 1930 where her father was a contractor. Though Gedalyahu had attended yeshiva and received rabbinical ordination, the family was not religious but quite Zionist. Rina attended a Hebrew speaking school. She had two siblings: Aviva (b. 1926) and Reuven (b. 1935). On June 14, 1941 they were deported to Siberia and sent to the village of Altaiski Krei. Gedalyahu was imprisoned and died one year later. Rina's mother and older sister worked in the fields and in an office doing accounting. In 1947 the family returned to Vilna only to be sent back to Siberia two years later. They settled in Irkutsk. Rina married Avram Romas in 1953. Their two daughters Tamara and Anna were born in Irkutsk. In 1989 the family returned to Vilna and immigrated to Israel the following year.
