Tag #124176 - Interview #95191 (Berta Zelbert)

Our studies in Stalinsk took its normal course. Almost all our teachers were evacuated with us. Our Komsomol Committee from the institute also was working. Wall newspaper was issued. There were problems with food. We got food cards [17]. We had to get up at night to get our turn in the line and then spend the whole day there to get the products. We, students, made a roster. Several people stood in the line by turns and then got the products for everybody by cards. The products were not diversified, though we were not starving and ate everything we could get, e.g. soup from herring is not very tasty, but we gladly ate it. Besides, we were fed at the institute’s canteen, but we gave there some of our food cards. We were paid a stipend. We were involved in social work. We worked from one house to another and read the local fresh news. It was hard from the moral standpoint, because in most families men were in the lines and they did not get letters from them. We told things happening on the front, but the news were not comforting – everybody understood that it was perilous. So, I finished the second course of the institute. I was rather diligent and did well.

We read papers, listened to the radio and new what was happening in the lines. We had a feeling that we were living in the rear, and people were fighting in the lines.