Tag #152778 - Interview #101503 (Vladimir Khalfin)

1932-33 was a period of famine in Ukraine 4. Many people starved to death at that time – whole villages got deserted. The Soviet authorities forced farmers to give them all agricultural products and grain. I have dim memories of this period. All I remember was that my sister and I woke up at night crying and asking for food. I remember mother dividing a slice of bread between the two of us. She ate breadcrumbs from the table. Mother had a bag of black flour on the attic that saved us from death. She added it into boiling water and we ate this sticky mixture. (Later we ate the same food in the ghetto during the war.) My paternal grandmother Haya, starved to death in 1933. Her sons were trying to help her as much as they could, but grandmother didn’t eat anything so that more meal remaine for the children, so she was fading away. She died in her sleep and was buried near grandfather Aron at the Jewish cemetery in Luchinets.