In August 1943 you were conscripted to the Reichsarbeitsdienst(labour service). What was the course of events? I had completed the last year at the town’s school, which was turned into a grammar school after the war. But the lessons were given like at a grammar school. That’s why I would have had to go to … Continue reading Karl Juesten →
Pavlo Levytskyi tells about the shooting of Jewish people in his village, his childhood during the World War II and his life in the orphanage.
The war killed and scattered many Ukrainians all over the world among whom the relatives of Mrs. Dariia Zavoiska appeared to be.
Mykola Pavlish wrote a story of his life in five school notebooks. His parents found these diaries in the old grandfather’s office. Stories, written by grandfather in his notebooks, are interesting and humanized, containing the information about historical events, specific people’s names and adventures. Such oral stories usually allow you to immerse yourself in not only your family history but also into the history of your homeland. I personally did not know my grandfather, because I was born a year after his death, but my father Oleh Pavlish told me this story.
Volodymyr Zalevskyi tells his grandfather’s story, who took part in the Great Patriotic War, where he was wounded.
He worked on a farm at the beginning of the war. Some of his fellow farm workers and him were once sent to the exhibition of National Economy. The exhibition took place in Moscow, which was the capital of the USSR at that time. Having returned back home from the exhibition, they wanted to organize … Continue reading Volodymyr Voitiuk →
Like almost every young person those days, my mom was taken in 1943 from Kyiv to Germany. She was only 19 years old back then. They also took her sister with them. My mother’s sister, that is my aunt, undermined boards in the cattle truck and leapt off the train in Koziatyn (Kyiv region). In … Continue reading Elvira (Vira) Gutsalo →
My name is Zofia Raj, I was born in 1950. My parents told me what they had experienced during the war, at least everything they knew for sure. Did people want to escape from here? Were they afraid that they would be resettled? In the beginning of the war, people were fleeing … Continue reading Zofia Raj →
Lidiya was born in 1927 in the village Lukshyno, Smolensk region (Russia). She witnessed war since 1942. In 1966 Lidiya moved together with her family to the village Pishchanka, Dnipropetrovsk region.