Shelly Weiner and
Raya Kizhnerman

Ukraine
Interviewed in Greensboro,
North Carolina by Edward Serotta

Photo: Shelly and Raya visiting the Poloschuk family in the Ukrainian farming hamlet of Myatin in 2013. Shelly, Raya and their mothers were hidden by the Paluschuks for 28 months during the Second World War.

Historical note: The German attack on the Soviet Union began on 22 June 1941 and more than a million Jews would meet their ends being shot by firing squad, usually outside of every town and village. The city of Rovno (or Rivne) had a Jewish population of more than 22,000. Of those, at least 17,500 were shot over the course of two days in November, 1941. This is the story of how two sisters fled to a nearby village and took their daughters with them.

“I have often wondered how the Palaschuk family had such strength and bravery to do what they did.”

Raya: The people that hid us — I was a little older than Shelly so I have more memories — Natalia and her husband, this family, they had five children. They had one girl and four sons.

Shelly: The only thing I know about Natalia and Nikanor is that he would be the one, well they took turns bringing us the food and--- our biggest problem were the rats and the mice and the lice. So, we had a blanket. Once a month she took our clothes and we wrapped in the blankets. And they were rough blankets. And she would put them in the oven to kill the lice.

Shelly: The thing that I remember about the hiding in the barn was that Raya and I would play with the straw. We would make animals out of the straw, we would make dolls, those were the only toys we had and our mothers would tell us stories. That is how we passed the time away. That I can remember.

Shelly: All together I think we were in the barn maybe 20 months.

Shelly: I think the scariest night of my life was, when Nikanor came up and told our mothers that they [the Germans] were coming for us. They knew we were there. And that we should come down. Well, our mothers said, could we have a little time to say goodbye to each other. And to this day, I don't know what possessed us, but Raya and I, I guess I was 5 and she was 6 at the time, started crying and begging our mothers not to go quietly. That we should run into the woods, we knew that there was a backdoor to the barn and somehow our mothers agreed to do it and that is what we did.

Raya: From the woods, at daytime, we were hiding in the fields. Uh, it was very hot. We had no food, no water, the sun was unbelievably hot and this is where we sat for three days. All we could eat, is, uh the raw grain from the rye. And then, Nikanor was calling on us. So, he actually didn't know where we are. But he was calling on us and we heard him and we came back to the house, to the bunker actually.

Raya: They built an underground bunker to hide their grain there and mainly to hide their daughter that was a young girl and at that time they would take the young girls to Germany. So, they placed us in that bunker underground and their daughter would stay with us from time to time when they would have raids. The bunker was a dark, damp place. All they had there was straw that we were laying down on. Rats and mice were in thousands running around. – We didn't have almost no food, just, just a little bit to keep us alive.

Shelly: I have often wondered how the Palaschuk family had such strength and bravery to do what they did. To hide us, four people, when they knew that the punishment would be death for them and their children and all their property would be confiscated. I am not sure how I would react in the same situation. I don’t think that many of us know how we would react.