Selected text
In the middle of June 1941 my summer vacations began. I finished the 7th grade at school. We never traveled. Our mother couldn’t afford it. I was planning to meet with my friends, go swimming and hiking in the summer. My sister Lubov finished the 10th grade and was planning to go take entrance exams to a college in Sverdlovsk. We heard on the radio that Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. At 12 o’clock on 22 June 1941 the radio announced that the war began and then Molotov [13] spoke. I remember our mother crying, but my sisters and I didn’t even have fear. We were constantly told at school that our army was the strongest in the world and nobody could defeat it. The same was said on the radio and published in newspapers. We were sure that the war was to be over in few days or weeks at the most.
When evacuation began in Novosokolniki authorized officials made rounds of people’s houses knocking on their windows to tell them to come to the station. They also said that we didn’t have to take much luggage since we were to be back soon. We took a small suitcase thinking that it was just for a week we were leaving, but it happened to be for good. We locked the doors taking our house register book and a head cap from my mother’s sewing machine and left our home. None of us ever came back to the house. The war took away everything from us. There were five of us going: our mother, my sister, me and, Genia and her daughter. We got on a freight train for transportation of cattle. We were bombed on the way. Nobody knew where we were going. Our trip lasted for almost a month. We didn’t have any food. At some stations where there were evacuation offices we could get a bowl of soup. We reached Cherdyn, [550 km from Moscow] in Solikamsk we got accommodation in a school building. Local residents told us it was going to be hard in the winter. The River Kama was frozen for almost half a year and there were no food supplies during this period. Besides, there were many former convicts that got residential permits to live in this town. They were former convicts from prisons and camps. There were political and criminal prisoners. They were not allowed to return home or reside in bigger towns after serving their sentence and they didn’t have a choice, but stay in northern towns. When we heard about it our mother suggested that we went to Sverdlovsk where we had relatives. We bought tickets and went to Sverdlovsk by boat. Representatives of the Evacuation Office met us at the station. We went to the office that arranged people to kolkhozes [14]. We were taken to a small village of Malotrifonnoye, Egorshyn district, Sverdlovsk region. The kolkhoz was called ‘Red Partisan’. We got accommodation in an abandoned house. My mother and Genia’s daughter stayed at home and Genia, my sister Lubov and I went to work in the kolkhoz. We worked in the field. We knew what to do since we had done similar work before. However, we had to work so hard that we couldn’t stand on our feet from exhaustion. We were constantly hungry. Villagers were very poor, too. Hardly anybody had a cow or a goat. At first we received one kilogram of flour per working day in the kolkhoz. I got 5-7 kg of flour per week. Then we received 0.5 kg per day that reduced to 250 grams gradually until we got nothing at all. Instead we were fed with the wartime slogan ‘Everything for the front, everything for victory!’ There were people evacuated via the ‘Road of life’ from Leningrad and few families from Moscow. When we got nothing for work in the kolkhoz people from poorer families began to die. We boiled nettle, picked some herb roots and berries in the wood. We also suffered from cold. We didn’t have any winter clothes and the temperature dropped to - 400C. Our neighbors gave us some rubber boots that we wore to work. We arrived at Malotrifonnoye in early October. It was already cold and we had to heat the house. Local people took us to the woods. There were huge and tall trees there. The locals gave us saws and axes and showed us how to cut a tree so that it fell on its side. I wonder how we didn’t get killed by a falling tree… We had to chop wood from the tree that we cut. We were more dead than alive. We were so weak that we could hardly manage with an ax. We also had to pile the wood that also required some skills. It got dark soon in autumn. There were wolves that even came to the village… We had to take wood home on sledges that we dragged. We had to take care of it after work in the evening looking back for wolves. I don’t know how we survived.
When evacuation began in Novosokolniki authorized officials made rounds of people’s houses knocking on their windows to tell them to come to the station. They also said that we didn’t have to take much luggage since we were to be back soon. We took a small suitcase thinking that it was just for a week we were leaving, but it happened to be for good. We locked the doors taking our house register book and a head cap from my mother’s sewing machine and left our home. None of us ever came back to the house. The war took away everything from us. There were five of us going: our mother, my sister, me and, Genia and her daughter. We got on a freight train for transportation of cattle. We were bombed on the way. Nobody knew where we were going. Our trip lasted for almost a month. We didn’t have any food. At some stations where there were evacuation offices we could get a bowl of soup. We reached Cherdyn, [550 km from Moscow] in Solikamsk we got accommodation in a school building. Local residents told us it was going to be hard in the winter. The River Kama was frozen for almost half a year and there were no food supplies during this period. Besides, there were many former convicts that got residential permits to live in this town. They were former convicts from prisons and camps. There were political and criminal prisoners. They were not allowed to return home or reside in bigger towns after serving their sentence and they didn’t have a choice, but stay in northern towns. When we heard about it our mother suggested that we went to Sverdlovsk where we had relatives. We bought tickets and went to Sverdlovsk by boat. Representatives of the Evacuation Office met us at the station. We went to the office that arranged people to kolkhozes [14]. We were taken to a small village of Malotrifonnoye, Egorshyn district, Sverdlovsk region. The kolkhoz was called ‘Red Partisan’. We got accommodation in an abandoned house. My mother and Genia’s daughter stayed at home and Genia, my sister Lubov and I went to work in the kolkhoz. We worked in the field. We knew what to do since we had done similar work before. However, we had to work so hard that we couldn’t stand on our feet from exhaustion. We were constantly hungry. Villagers were very poor, too. Hardly anybody had a cow or a goat. At first we received one kilogram of flour per working day in the kolkhoz. I got 5-7 kg of flour per week. Then we received 0.5 kg per day that reduced to 250 grams gradually until we got nothing at all. Instead we were fed with the wartime slogan ‘Everything for the front, everything for victory!’ There were people evacuated via the ‘Road of life’ from Leningrad and few families from Moscow. When we got nothing for work in the kolkhoz people from poorer families began to die. We boiled nettle, picked some herb roots and berries in the wood. We also suffered from cold. We didn’t have any winter clothes and the temperature dropped to - 400C. Our neighbors gave us some rubber boots that we wore to work. We arrived at Malotrifonnoye in early October. It was already cold and we had to heat the house. Local people took us to the woods. There were huge and tall trees there. The locals gave us saws and axes and showed us how to cut a tree so that it fell on its side. I wonder how we didn’t get killed by a falling tree… We had to chop wood from the tree that we cut. We were more dead than alive. We were so weak that we could hardly manage with an ax. We also had to pile the wood that also required some skills. It got dark soon in autumn. There were wolves that even came to the village… We had to take wood home on sledges that we dragged. We had to take care of it after work in the evening looking back for wolves. I don’t know how we survived.
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Evgenia Gendler