Liubov Tsung was born in 1925 in Odessa, one of four children of the fabric dyer Moisei Tsung. In 1929, with the end of the NEP (New Economic Policy) in the Soviet Union, Moisei's dye house was shut down, and he went to work in the same capacity at a state-run factory. The family was Russian-speaking, but religious. Liubov finished school in 1941. In June that year, the Soviet-German War broke out. The family failed to evacuate from Odessa, and, after the city had been occupied by German and Romanian troops in mid-October 1941, they remained under Romanian occupation. Liubov experienced the major stages of the persecution of the Jews of Odessa: the detainment of Jews in the city prison in November 1941, their resettlement in the Slobodka quarter, and their deportation to Berezovka in December that year. Liubov lost her entire family during the occupation: Her father disappeared after leaving home for work on one of the first days of Romanian rule; her elder sister died in a hospital, and her mother and two younger siblings perished in Berezovka. Liubov managed to escape from the makeshift Berezovka "camp". She survived the occupation, using a cover story according to which her father was Russian, while her mother was Jewish, and this was the reason for her deportation from Odessa. Thanks to this story, Liubov was even able to come back to the city, where she was supported by friendly non-Jews.
In April 1944, Odessa was liberated by the forces of the 3rd Ukrainian Front of the Red Army. Liubov Tsung completed a brief course for nurses, and in July 1944 she was drafted into the Red Army. After undergoing basic military training, she was attached to the 3rd Ukrainian Front and sent to Romania; from there, she was transferred to Hungary, where her baptism by fire took place. Despite her medical training, Liubov served with the communication troops of the Red Army. Only on one occasion did she render medical assistance – to a fellow servicewoman who had been wounded in a landmine explosion before her very eyes. By the end of the war, Liubov was the commander of a unit (otdelenie), despite not even being promoted to the rank of corporal.
Liubov Tsung was discharged from the army in 1945. She later worked as a bookkeeper.
