punish his children, beating them when they disobeyed him. He used a whip only on Emma, the most rebellious of them. [ 8 ] Her mother provided scarce comfort, calling only rarely on Abraham to tone down his beatings. [ 9 ] Goldman later speculated that her father's furious temper was at least partly a result of sexual frustration. [ 5 ] Goldman's relationships with her elder half-sisters, Helena and Lena, were a study in contrasts. Helena, the oldest, provided the comfort they lacked from their mother; she filled Goldman's childhood with "whatever joy it had". [ 10 ] Lena, however, was distant and uncharitable. [ 11 ] The three sisters were joined by brothers Louis (who died at the age of six), Herman (born in 1872), and Moishe (born in 1879). [ 12 ] Adolescence Emma Goldman's family in St. Petersberg, Russia in 1882. From left to right: Emma, standing; Helena, seated, with Morris on her lap; Taube; Herman; Abraham. When Emma was a young girl, the Goldman family moved to the village of Papilė , where her father ran an inn. While her sisters worked, she became friends with a servant named Petrushka, who excited her "first erotic sensations". [ 13 ] Later in Papilė she witnessed a peasant being whipped with a knout in the street. This event traumatized her and contributed to her lifelong distaste for violent authority. [ 14 ] At the age of seven, Goldman moved with her family to the Prussian city of