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When the siege began, it was very distressing, I was hungry and stopped going to school. So, in 1942 I did not go to school, though it was open. I was starving and unable to go to school. My father lost 25 kgs. We slept very close to each other, and at night it often seemed that he was already dead. He was not enrolled because of contagious tuberculosis. He worked at the “Krasny Napilnik" factory in Obvodny embankment and left me alone in our municipal apartment, as he did not leave the factory for weeks. At that time I was 15 years old, and I lived alone in our large municipal apartment, all roomers of our apartment had already died by that time. Only one woman with a little girl (6-7 years old) still lived there. One morning I knocked at their door to take their food cards to help them receive bread. At that time people stood in line from 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning to receive their 125 grammes of bread (I received 125 g and my daddy - 250 g). By that time Bella (this woman’s name) did not leave her room any more, she grew weak. I knocked at their door, and nobody answered me. I entered their dark room (there was no electric light, everybody used oil-lamps) and saw Alya, that woman’s daughter lying on the bed beside her. Together with Alya we tried to wake her, but we found her dead. I took Alya with me and went to militia to inform them. I hoped to get militia’s assistance, but they refused. Then I found Bella’s relatives, who buried her. Friends took Alya away to the hospital named after Raukhfuss to treat her, but she died there very soon.
Half of our house was bombed out, and half of our windows were blocked up with plywood, we had toy stoves, and their chimneys were connected directly with fireplaces (our house had stoves-fireplaces – at that time there was no central heating). In the toy stoves we burnt everything we could find - I sawed chairs in pieces and burnt them. There was a small boxroom in the flat, where my neighbour kept boards (he was away for about 4 or 5 months). I took these boards and sawed them in pieces, because I was absolutely frozen. Daddy sewed valenki for me from felt, and I covered my head and hands with a blanket and walked along the streets. I walked this way: «I wish I could reach that drainpipe ...», - I spoke to myself. When I reached it, I stood still for a while. Then – the next drainpipe. When the bomb destroyed our house, I left for my aunt’s apartment (Miron’s mother), but I regularly visited our apartment. I crossed the Neva river (I went down to Neva near the Military Medical Academy), went up several meters and came to the apartment. We took water from the Neva River, I used sledge.
Half of our house was bombed out, and half of our windows were blocked up with plywood, we had toy stoves, and their chimneys were connected directly with fireplaces (our house had stoves-fireplaces – at that time there was no central heating). In the toy stoves we burnt everything we could find - I sawed chairs in pieces and burnt them. There was a small boxroom in the flat, where my neighbour kept boards (he was away for about 4 or 5 months). I took these boards and sawed them in pieces, because I was absolutely frozen. Daddy sewed valenki for me from felt, and I covered my head and hands with a blanket and walked along the streets. I walked this way: «I wish I could reach that drainpipe ...», - I spoke to myself. When I reached it, I stood still for a while. Then – the next drainpipe. When the bomb destroyed our house, I left for my aunt’s apartment (Miron’s mother), but I regularly visited our apartment. I crossed the Neva river (I went down to Neva near the Military Medical Academy), went up several meters and came to the apartment. We took water from the Neva River, I used sledge.
Period
Year
1942
Location
Leningrad
Russia
Interview
Alexandra (Shifra) Melenevskaya