Selected text
In summer 1942 I was summoned to the director of the gold mine. He announced that I was sentenced to three years in a high security camp for illegal crossing of the border. The director had just received our documents, but actually, it was my third year in imprisonment. This was not the worst sentence under article 80 of the Criminal Code of the USSR. When a person was accused of espionage the sentence was over five years. If a person had relatives abroad the sentence was over eight years of imprisonment. I was sentenced to three years for illegal crossing of the border. How this verdict was reached when there were no interrogations or investigations - who knows.
In late 1942 I was sent to Burkhala mine. There were several mines: Northern, Western, Susuman, Yagodny; I'm beginning to forget their names. We were sent to different mines and did similar work to what we had done in Moliak. In 1943 many former citizens of Czechoslovakia were summoned to the distribution camp in Magadan from where we started on our way to Kolyma. I was the only Jew among them. All Czechoslovak citizens were released and sent to a Czech legion formed in Buzuluk under the agreement between Stalin and Masaryk. However, when they read the list of this group my name wasn't on it and I stayed in the distribution camp, and after two or three weeks I was sent back to Burkhala without an explanation. I continuously requested appointments with the director of the camp asking for an explanation. I had been sentenced to three-year imprisonment. It had expired a while before and nobody had extended my sentence. I kept writing letters to all Soviet and party leaders: Stalin, Beriya [12], Kaganovich [13], Molotov [14]; all of them. There was no response. I worked at Burkhala from 1943 to 1947. We weren't paid for our work, of course, we didn't get any food, no medical care, the conditions were terrible: there were barracks for 100-200 prisoners, hardly any heating, severely cold climate. Summer only lasted a few weeks and there were frost up to minus 40 degrees for the rest of the year.
Throughout this time I had no information about my relatives. The camp inmates weren't allowed to correspond with their families. It happened only once that I bumped into some short report in a piece of newspaper I got incidentally, saying that the Soviet troops had crossed Pasika liberating Subcarpathia. At least I knew that my village was still there.
On 30th January 1947 the director of the camp called me. He looked confused and said that he had already had problems since my sentence had been over for a long time and I was still kept in the camp. I was sent to the human resource department of the mine to obtain documents. I didn't quite know the way. They just explained to me that I had to cross a pass in the mountains and turn a few times before I came to the village. It was a miracle that's hard to describe: for the first time in many years I had no armed escort - I was free! I don't think I felt cold.
In the human resource department I obtained the certificate of release from the camp and a job assignment to work in Burkhala mine as an employee. The date of release in my document is 30th January 1947. I returned to the office of the chief engineer in Burkhala. He asked me where I wanted to work and I answered that I wanted to return home. He explained to me that I only had the right to live in Kolyma. I knew several Jews that were shoemakers and tailors in Magadan. To leave Kolyma I needed a permit without which I couldn't even get a train ticket. Besides, I didn't have money. I worked as a laborer in the stables for two weeks. Then I was summoned to the office again.
They reviewed my documents that said that I had finished the Commercial Academy in Mukachevo. I was sent to work as a worker in a store at the mine and they promised to make me a shop assistant in a short while. There were four shop assistants in that store. This was a store for residents and employees selling meat, sausage, butter and sugar per food coupons. I had been a worker there for two months when the director of the store was transferred to a store in Yagodny mine and I took his place. I lived in a hostel near the store. When I became director I received a room of my own in this hostel. I received a salary and had sufficient food. The people and management of the mine treated me well. Throughout this period I kept writing letters to Moscow. I was writing these letters and I never got any response. I didn't even know whether my letters ever left Kolyma.
In December 1947 I was summoned to the office of the mine. They told me that I was allowed to leave Kolyma. However, it was next to impossible to leave Kolyma in winter. The rivers were frozen and the planes were only for the management to fly on business. A few days later the manager of the mine and his family were going on vacation and he offered me help. I was so happy to get this offer: I could go to Magadan in a bus. This was in February 1948. The temperature was minus 50 and there was heating in the bus. I obtained an official certificate saying, 'Released from the camp and is allowed to go to the continent' [the European part of the USSR].
I was sent to the town of Voronovitsa in Vinnitsa region [20 km to Vinnitsa, 215 km to Kiev]. From Magadan I flew to Novosibirsk via Yakutsk. It was faster to go via Khabarovsk, but I would have had to wait for a whole day for the plane via Khabarovsk and I was too impatient to be on my way. From Novosibirsk I took a train to Moscow. I wasn't allowed to live in big towns, but it was all right to travel through them. I stayed in Moscow a day and took a train to Vinnitsa. In Vinnitsa I rented a room from a poor Jewish family. A few days later our district militiaman came to tell me that my point of destination was Voronovitsa. I have no idea how he knew about where I was to go, but you know, that was how information spread in the USSR. I went to Voronovitsa where I rented a room from an old woman. I had to go to work, but all I could think about was going home.
I called the village council in Pasika and asked them to find someone from the Shtern family. I told them when I would call back. When I called again Bela Shtern was on the phone. He wasn't a relative, just had the same surname as I. I talked to him. He said that none of my relatives were in Pasika, but he didn't offer any details. He promised to send me money to travel home and said that he would tell me what I wanted to know when I came there. I kept writing to Kiev trying to obtain permission to travel home since Subcarpathia belonged to the Ukraine already. I also requested an appointment with the chairman of the regional executive committee in Vinnitsa and the KGB [15] office, but there was no response.
Throughout the few months of my life in Voronovitsa I had meals in a diner. It was inexpensive and I had to be saving for my return home. I was lonely and wished I could talk to someone. I met a young waitress there. I told her that I wanted to go home, and was waiting for permission and money to buy a ticket. Later this woman turned out to be a KGB informer. Once a KGB officer came to the diner where I used to have meals. He checked my documents and took me to the district militia office. I was kept there for several hours. They checked my documents, apologized and let me go. For the rest of my life they watched me and kept me under control. Shortly afterward I received permission to go home. In October 1948 I left for Subcarpathia. I left Kolyma in February and only in October, eight months later, did I manage to reach home.
In late 1942 I was sent to Burkhala mine. There were several mines: Northern, Western, Susuman, Yagodny; I'm beginning to forget their names. We were sent to different mines and did similar work to what we had done in Moliak. In 1943 many former citizens of Czechoslovakia were summoned to the distribution camp in Magadan from where we started on our way to Kolyma. I was the only Jew among them. All Czechoslovak citizens were released and sent to a Czech legion formed in Buzuluk under the agreement between Stalin and Masaryk. However, when they read the list of this group my name wasn't on it and I stayed in the distribution camp, and after two or three weeks I was sent back to Burkhala without an explanation. I continuously requested appointments with the director of the camp asking for an explanation. I had been sentenced to three-year imprisonment. It had expired a while before and nobody had extended my sentence. I kept writing letters to all Soviet and party leaders: Stalin, Beriya [12], Kaganovich [13], Molotov [14]; all of them. There was no response. I worked at Burkhala from 1943 to 1947. We weren't paid for our work, of course, we didn't get any food, no medical care, the conditions were terrible: there were barracks for 100-200 prisoners, hardly any heating, severely cold climate. Summer only lasted a few weeks and there were frost up to minus 40 degrees for the rest of the year.
Throughout this time I had no information about my relatives. The camp inmates weren't allowed to correspond with their families. It happened only once that I bumped into some short report in a piece of newspaper I got incidentally, saying that the Soviet troops had crossed Pasika liberating Subcarpathia. At least I knew that my village was still there.
On 30th January 1947 the director of the camp called me. He looked confused and said that he had already had problems since my sentence had been over for a long time and I was still kept in the camp. I was sent to the human resource department of the mine to obtain documents. I didn't quite know the way. They just explained to me that I had to cross a pass in the mountains and turn a few times before I came to the village. It was a miracle that's hard to describe: for the first time in many years I had no armed escort - I was free! I don't think I felt cold.
In the human resource department I obtained the certificate of release from the camp and a job assignment to work in Burkhala mine as an employee. The date of release in my document is 30th January 1947. I returned to the office of the chief engineer in Burkhala. He asked me where I wanted to work and I answered that I wanted to return home. He explained to me that I only had the right to live in Kolyma. I knew several Jews that were shoemakers and tailors in Magadan. To leave Kolyma I needed a permit without which I couldn't even get a train ticket. Besides, I didn't have money. I worked as a laborer in the stables for two weeks. Then I was summoned to the office again.
They reviewed my documents that said that I had finished the Commercial Academy in Mukachevo. I was sent to work as a worker in a store at the mine and they promised to make me a shop assistant in a short while. There were four shop assistants in that store. This was a store for residents and employees selling meat, sausage, butter and sugar per food coupons. I had been a worker there for two months when the director of the store was transferred to a store in Yagodny mine and I took his place. I lived in a hostel near the store. When I became director I received a room of my own in this hostel. I received a salary and had sufficient food. The people and management of the mine treated me well. Throughout this period I kept writing letters to Moscow. I was writing these letters and I never got any response. I didn't even know whether my letters ever left Kolyma.
In December 1947 I was summoned to the office of the mine. They told me that I was allowed to leave Kolyma. However, it was next to impossible to leave Kolyma in winter. The rivers were frozen and the planes were only for the management to fly on business. A few days later the manager of the mine and his family were going on vacation and he offered me help. I was so happy to get this offer: I could go to Magadan in a bus. This was in February 1948. The temperature was minus 50 and there was heating in the bus. I obtained an official certificate saying, 'Released from the camp and is allowed to go to the continent' [the European part of the USSR].
I was sent to the town of Voronovitsa in Vinnitsa region [20 km to Vinnitsa, 215 km to Kiev]. From Magadan I flew to Novosibirsk via Yakutsk. It was faster to go via Khabarovsk, but I would have had to wait for a whole day for the plane via Khabarovsk and I was too impatient to be on my way. From Novosibirsk I took a train to Moscow. I wasn't allowed to live in big towns, but it was all right to travel through them. I stayed in Moscow a day and took a train to Vinnitsa. In Vinnitsa I rented a room from a poor Jewish family. A few days later our district militiaman came to tell me that my point of destination was Voronovitsa. I have no idea how he knew about where I was to go, but you know, that was how information spread in the USSR. I went to Voronovitsa where I rented a room from an old woman. I had to go to work, but all I could think about was going home.
I called the village council in Pasika and asked them to find someone from the Shtern family. I told them when I would call back. When I called again Bela Shtern was on the phone. He wasn't a relative, just had the same surname as I. I talked to him. He said that none of my relatives were in Pasika, but he didn't offer any details. He promised to send me money to travel home and said that he would tell me what I wanted to know when I came there. I kept writing to Kiev trying to obtain permission to travel home since Subcarpathia belonged to the Ukraine already. I also requested an appointment with the chairman of the regional executive committee in Vinnitsa and the KGB [15] office, but there was no response.
Throughout the few months of my life in Voronovitsa I had meals in a diner. It was inexpensive and I had to be saving for my return home. I was lonely and wished I could talk to someone. I met a young waitress there. I told her that I wanted to go home, and was waiting for permission and money to buy a ticket. Later this woman turned out to be a KGB informer. Once a KGB officer came to the diner where I used to have meals. He checked my documents and took me to the district militia office. I was kept there for several hours. They checked my documents, apologized and let me go. For the rest of my life they watched me and kept me under control. Shortly afterward I received permission to go home. In October 1948 I left for Subcarpathia. I left Kolyma in February and only in October, eight months later, did I manage to reach home.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
zoltan shtern