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My mother and I were trying to find my sister. I kept writing letters to all towns where she might have been. I also wrote to Buguruslan where the central evacuation agency was located. It kept information about all people in evacuation. We were lucky – at the end of 1943 we received a letter from Buguruslan. It said that my sister and her family stayed at Kinel railway station near Kuibyshev.
I took a leave from work and set out on my way to find her. I took a 10 kilo bag of dried bread with me. I obtained a letter from the district executive committee requesting all Soviet state and party authorities to provide assistance to me with food and in my search.
When I saw my sister I didn’t recognize her – so starved they were. Misha, the youngest had starved to death a month before I came. He begged his mother for a piece of bread when he was dying. I stayed with my sister for a month. Then my brother-in-law quit his job and we set out on our way to where my mother and I were staying. Henry became an auditor in Mikhailovka and our life wasn’t too bad.
I took a leave from work and set out on my way to find her. I took a 10 kilo bag of dried bread with me. I obtained a letter from the district executive committee requesting all Soviet state and party authorities to provide assistance to me with food and in my search.
When I saw my sister I didn’t recognize her – so starved they were. Misha, the youngest had starved to death a month before I came. He begged his mother for a piece of bread when he was dying. I stayed with my sister for a month. Then my brother-in-law quit his job and we set out on our way to where my mother and I were staying. Henry became an auditor in Mikhailovka and our life wasn’t too bad.
Period
Location
Buguruslan
Orenburgskaya oblast'
Russia
Interview
Natan Shapiro