Portrait photograph, circa 1951
Solomon Fridrih is born in 1919 in the village of Sestrinowka near Kosjatyn in the Vinnytsia region to a Jewish family. His birthplace is located about 150 kilometers southwest of Kyiv. From 1942, he serves in the Red Army; as a military doctor, he participates in the battles against the Wehrmacht on the territory of present-day Ukraine. Until 1970, he serves in the Soviet Army and ultimately holds the rank of Colonel. Immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Solomon Fridrih leaves the newly independent Ukraine in 1992 with his wife and arrives in Germany as a so-called “contingent refugee” – several family members follow him. He dies in 2005 at the age of 86 in Gelsenkirchen. He was a Ukrainian Jew, spoke Russian, was born amid the Civil War that broke out after the 1917 revolution, and fought in World War II for the Soviet Union. The last twelve years of his remarkable life were spent in reunified Germany. His grandson, born in 2015, is named after him.
