Answer:
Matvey was the youngest of three children born to a Jewish family. The Gredingers lived in the town of Vertujeni, which was located in Bessarabia, a region of Romania.
His father was a kosher butcher, preparing meat, especially chicken, for sale in his kosher shop. Matvey attended a Jewish school where he studied Jewish history and Hebrew.
After Matvey completed the seventh grade, he went to the Romanian capital of Bucharest in 1934 and secured a job working in a textile factory.
While Matvey was visiting his family in 1940, the Soviets occupied Bessarabia. Within a year the Germans occupied the area. At once, Romanian soldiers began shooting Jews. His family barricaded their house but the soldiers broke in. Matvey was dragged out and a soldier fired at him; the bullet passed through his neck. Matvey survived and fled to a nearby town, but the Germans came the next day. He was then deported to a forced-labor camp in Ukraine. In 1944 he was liberated by the Red Army.