Selected text
In the fall of 1941 the Germans advanced to the east quickly. Me, my mother and brother left for evacuation. We had no luggage – no personal belongings, no towels, no food. There was no organized evacuation from Kramatorsk. We were evacuated according to the voenkomat [military commissariat] as a military’s family. We were sent to Sverdlovsk in the Urals [2,000 km east of St. Petersburg]. There were no more passenger trains, bombed troop trains returned form the frontline without any schedule. We got onto those semi-destroyed trains and left without any destination point.
Soon we came to Stalingrad. German planes hovered above us and bombed the trains in front of us, but they did not bomb our train. We were robbed in the train, a basket full of food products was stolen. So we had to starve. At the Tikhoretskaya station we slept right on the station floor. We arrived in Stalingrad lousy and starving. We were sent to the evacuation station for sanitary treatment. We washed, but that did not help, we still were lice-ridden. We were offered to be evacuated to Yenataisk, to get across the Volga River, to its left bank. Mother refused. She still believed that Father, reported missing, had not perished and would look for us in Sverdlovsk according to the voenkomat papers. If we had gone to Yenataisk, we would have stayed there, because it was possible to get there only on board a ship.
In 1941 we arrived in Sverdlovsk [now Yekaterinburg, a big center of military industry in the Urals].
Soon we came to Stalingrad. German planes hovered above us and bombed the trains in front of us, but they did not bomb our train. We were robbed in the train, a basket full of food products was stolen. So we had to starve. At the Tikhoretskaya station we slept right on the station floor. We arrived in Stalingrad lousy and starving. We were sent to the evacuation station for sanitary treatment. We washed, but that did not help, we still were lice-ridden. We were offered to be evacuated to Yenataisk, to get across the Volga River, to its left bank. Mother refused. She still believed that Father, reported missing, had not perished and would look for us in Sverdlovsk according to the voenkomat papers. If we had gone to Yenataisk, we would have stayed there, because it was possible to get there only on board a ship.
In 1941 we arrived in Sverdlovsk [now Yekaterinburg, a big center of military industry in the Urals].
Period
Year
1941
Location
Russia
Interview
Nina Khlevner