Centropa Stories: Season 13 1945: The End of the Second World War in Europe

By the spring of 1945, the Soviet Army was closing in on Berlin from the east, the Allies had entered Germany from the west, and Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30 April. 

From the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, some 20 million military personnel had been killed along with 40 million civilians. Of those, 6 million were Jews and that included 1.5 million children.

This podcast season takes you into the personal stories of nine elderly Jews we interviewed between 2001 and 2010. In the first episode three Ukrainian Jews will tell you about fighting their way into Berlin. 

In episode two, we’ll hear from a young Jewish man freed from a German work camp, a teenager in Budapest who went to the train station hoping her father would be coming back, and from someone who stumbled back in Lodz, hoping to find someone in her family might still be alive.

The third episode is all about starting over: in Vilnius in Lithuania, in Bitola in today’s North Macedonia, and in Targu Mures in Romania.

All these stories were told to us by Jews who had been born in Europe—and who remained in Europe. Their stories were recorded in each of their languages. We have translated and edited them and they are read for us by actors in London.

This podcast season was co-funded by the European Union. 

Semyon Nezynsky was born in a Ukrainian shtetl near Kyiv but from the time he was a teenager, he had dreams of a military career. By the time he was 21 he was a major in the Soviet Army commanding a Katyusha rocket brigade. In May 1945 his unit fought their way into Berlin and Semyon strode up the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin to write his name on the wall.

Allan Corduner reads Semyon’s story for us, and it is based on an interview conducted by Ella Levitskaya in Kyiv in 2003.

Eva R. was born in 1919 in a village not far from Dnipro. She studied medicine and found herself drafted into the Soviet Army in 1941. Eva served at Stalingrad and by 1945 she had been promoted to the rank of major. She ended the war in Berlin walking through Adolf Hitler’s chancellery.

Jane Bertish in London reads Eva’s story, which is based on an interview conducted by Ella Levitskaya in 2004.

Arnold Fabrikant came from Odesa, where both his parents were doctors. Arnold’s father Yefim and his unit tried to hold off the Germans when they surrounded Kyiv. Yefim killed himself rather than fall into German hands. Arnold, then 20 years old, spent the next four years on the front and ended the war shooting his way into Berlin.

David Horovitch reads Arnold’s story, which is based on an interview conducted in Odesa by Natalia Rezanova in 2004.

Leo Luster grew up in Vienna speaking German and Yiddish. He and his parents were deported to Terezin in 1942. While his mother remained there, Leo and his father were sent on to Auschwitz, then a series of work camps. One morning Leo saw that the German guards had fled. He stepped outside to see a Soviet soldier pointing a rifle at him. Leo blurted out, in Yiddish, “I’m a Jew!” The soldier lowered his rifle and replied in Yiddish, “So am I.”

The actor Steve Furst read’s Leo’s story for us. Leo was interviewed in Tel Aviv and Vienna by Tanja Eckstein in 2010.

Psychiatrist Irena Wojdyslawska was 83-years old when Marek Czekalski came to her apartment in Lodz in 2004. Irena tells the harrowing tale of being deported from the Lodz Ghetto to Auschwitz, and then what it was like being liberated after losing just about everyone.

Irena Wojdyslawska’s story is read for us by Jilly Bond in London.

Judit Kinszki was born in Budapest in 1927. In 1944 her brother Gabor was sent to a concentration camp, her father was herded onto a death march. Judit and her mother spent nearly five months in the infamous Budapest Ghetto and the day they were liberated by the Soviet Army, they went to the train station every day, hoping to find Judit’s brother and father. 

Judit’s story is read for us by Jeni Barnet and Judit was interviewed for Centropa by Dora Sardi in 2005.

Lisa Lukinskaya was born in a Lithuanian shtetl and survived the war when nuns in a nearby convent took her in. At war’s end she went home to find that her 23-year-old husband had been killed but at least the rest of her family had survived. Lisa tells us of starting over when the family moved to Vilnius and that’s where she met a dashing Soviet officer.

Lisa Lukinskaya’s story was read for us by Tina Grey in London. Lisa was interviewed in Vilnius in 2005 by Zhanna Litinskaya. 

Roza Kamhi came from the town of Bitola in what is now North Macedonia. She and her boyfriend Beno Ruso joined the partisans when the Bulgarians occupied their region in 1941. Roza was jailed in 1943, Beno took to the hills. On the day of liberation, Roza saw Beno running up the street to embrace her. But why, she wondered, was 24-year-old Beno wearing the uniform of a general?

Roza Kamhi was interviewed for Centropa by Rachel Chanin in Skopje in 2005. Her story is read for us by Shelly Blonde.

Zsuzsa Diamantstein grew up in a middle class home in Targu Mures, Romania. Northern Transylvania was ceded to Hungary in 1940 and it was the Hungarian army that deported over 150,000 Jews to Auschwitz and other death camps. Zsuzsa managed to survive but found she had nothing in common with young people who had not gone through hell. Then she met Imre Diamantstein, who had just returned from the camps. 

Sara Kestelman reads Zsuzsa’s story for us and it is based on the interview conducted in 2005 in Targu Mures by Julia Negrea and Vera Badic.