Tag #150450 - Interview #97031 (Efim Geifman)

On 6 July (I hadn’t reached 18 then) I was summoned to the recruiting office. Soldiers were marching from Kiev. I had a small backpack and my mother put few cookies and a jar of jam into it. Neither of us cried – we were sure that this was going to end in a month or two and I would be back. We went to the left bank of the city where we were supposed to board a train.  But there were bombing and no trains. We walked another 150 km to the town of Yagotin. We didn’t receive any uniform and my shoes were all torn. I walked almost barefooted. We got meals on our way, but we also begged food from the local farmers, they felt sorry for us and gave us whatever they could. We got few spades on our way and tried to entrench ourselves during bombings. From Yagotin we went to Donbass by train. We were divided into small groups and sent to various areas. I came to the town of Khartsizsk. Being a big patriot I agreed to go to work in the mine at first, but then after my first try I refused to work there. It was too hard work for a town guy. We all went to work at a local collective farm. It was a former German colony. The Germans, being probable fascist accomplices, were removed to the Urals. We lived in their houses and harvested what they sowed.