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Soon the Germans began to bomb Stalino and we had to move somewhere else. We had no other relatives.
I remember very well, that we passed Rostov-on-Don on 1st September in 1941. I was to go to school, to the first grade on that date and I was upset that it didn’t happen. We were taken off the train soon and sent to work in a kolkhoz not far from Rostov-on-Don. All our family went there on a cart, drawn by oxen. When we arrived there, we found out that there was no water source in the village. They only had rainwater collected in basins. Mother refused to stay there, as she had a baby. So we were sent further.
We left Rostov by train in an open car. The cars were two-story, divided in two, without a roof. I could see everything, since we sat on the second story. The train didn’t get under bombing, but we had enough of other difficulties. Besides, there was no toilet. Mother breast-fed the baby. Almost all evacuated women had small children too. It was absolutely unknown, for how long that train would stop at the station or when it would leave. I still remember the fear of being left behind. Finally, we reached the station of Mineralnye Vody [town and large railroad junction in the south of Stavropol territory, at the foothills of the Northern Caucasus].
I remember very well, that we passed Rostov-on-Don on 1st September in 1941. I was to go to school, to the first grade on that date and I was upset that it didn’t happen. We were taken off the train soon and sent to work in a kolkhoz not far from Rostov-on-Don. All our family went there on a cart, drawn by oxen. When we arrived there, we found out that there was no water source in the village. They only had rainwater collected in basins. Mother refused to stay there, as she had a baby. So we were sent further.
We left Rostov by train in an open car. The cars were two-story, divided in two, without a roof. I could see everything, since we sat on the second story. The train didn’t get under bombing, but we had enough of other difficulties. Besides, there was no toilet. Mother breast-fed the baby. Almost all evacuated women had small children too. It was absolutely unknown, for how long that train would stop at the station or when it would leave. I still remember the fear of being left behind. Finally, we reached the station of Mineralnye Vody [town and large railroad junction in the south of Stavropol territory, at the foothills of the Northern Caucasus].
Period
Year
1941
Location
Mineralnye Vody
Russia
Interview
Margarita Farka
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