Photo by Ashleigh Allman
Mikhail Teslyar is newly initiated into the exclusive centenarian club, having recently celebrated his 100th birthday on March 6. His 16-year-old self never would have imagined he’d live to see such a milestone. On July 16, 1941, when the Nazis invaded his hometown of Bar, Ukraine, he was simply hoping to survive another day.
His life up until that point was relatively ordinary. His mother was a housewife, his father worked in agriculture and he attended school. Then, his world was turned upside down. Jews were suddenly isolated from people of other faiths and banned from entering public places, working or receiving an education.
Teslyar and his family continued living in their home until Aug. 19, 1942, when the Nazis established a ghetto in Bar, where survivors lived and worked until the Red Army liberated the town in February 1944. However, life was anything but easy. They were forced to work in a nearby labor camp — day or night — for 10 to 12 hours without pay or food. The family also hid from Nazis overnight in cornfields behind their house to avoid execution.
Drafted into the army at age 16, he served as a senior sergeant in the artillery division from February 1944 to October 1950 and later worked as a mechanical engineer at a hydraulic crane factory.
Teslyar lived in survival mode for decades and says he never truly felt safe until relocating to Boca Raton in 1991. He arrived with his father — who lived to age 97 — his stepmother and late wife, Fanya, who died in 1999 from lung cancer.
“When I came to America and was freed from the former Soviet Union at the age of 66, for the first time, I felt freedom,” he says. “Freedom of speech, religion and everything else.”
His and Fanya’s love story is one for the ages. They first met when Teslyar was in second grade. Fanya’s family fled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to escape the Nazis. After the war ended, she visited Kyiv, where Teslyar was stationed, and they reconnected. The fairytale romance led to marriage in 1952, two sons, four grandchildren and two great-granddaughters. “She was a shining light in every life she touched,” the widower fondly remembers.
Teslyar now lives alone in his Boca Raton apartment. He keeps his mind and body active through reading classic literature, practicing photography, swimming and shopping. Impressively, he also speaks four languages — English, Russian, Ukrainian and Yiddish — and wishes he had learned French.
“I didn’t think I would live to 100, but I live a busy life and didn’t notice the years,” he reflects. “Time flies.”