Tag #153670 - Interview #103357 (Leonid Mariasis)

On 13 June 1941 a cart stopped in front of our house at night. We were told to move. We were only allowed to take some clothing and documents, but no jewelry. Soviet officers were supervising the process. We were taken to the railway station and ordered to board the train for transportation of cattle. This wasn’t an anti-Jewish action. Nobody can explain what kind of action this was. There were Moldavians, Rumanians and Russians and, of course, there were many Jews on the train. They were richer and poorer and, of course, there were many Jews. There were 380 families (women, old people and children) to be removed (there were women, old people and children).  My father and many other men were separated from us. There were 50 people in each railcar and we slept on planks. We were not allowed to get off the train when it stopped.  We arrived at the point of destination on 25 July and we didn’t know that the war had begun. We happened to end up in Siberia – the Soviet farmyard “Tripolie” not far from Tumen.  We were told that we were special deportees and that we were not allowed to leave. We were supposed to go to work on the following day. We were living on the field until the middle of summer. We were involved in harvesting and construction of the livestock farm. My mother was having a difficult time. She wasn’t used to such life and she was spoiled in her previous life. She went to work in the field wearing high-heeled shoes – she just didn’t have other shoes. We were working at the construction site and she went weeding. We didn’t know where our father was or where the other men were. We were trying to get in touch with my father hoping that he was alive. Later we were told that he was under investigation and then sent to a penitentiary work camp in Siberia.