Tag #156057 - Interview #94776 (Grigoriy Stelmakh)

In December 1949 my father was deported to the Soviet Union. There was a train full of such prisoners betrayed by the soviet power. They were ordered to put on worn German overcoats and caps so that people didn’t know that they were Soviet clerks and military. People were spitting on their side thinking that they were fascist prisoners. They arrived in Komi ASSR, Kayskiy district, about 6000 km from Kiev. There were political and criminal prisoners in the camp. Criminal prisoners humiliated them and kept them in fear. They beat them losing a card game. My father worked at a wood cutting facility at first. It was hard for him, but he did his workload. He was a man of strong spirit and he managed to gain respect of political and criminal prisoners. Nobody ever humiliated him, and the criminals called him ‘zhyd’, but this was not a demonstration of anti-Semitism, but, however strange it may seem, this was their demonstration of respect and even love and recognition of his superiority in some issues. My father said that they pronounced this nickname with kindness and he was always proud of this nickname. Some time later my father was assigned to a fire brigade for his outstanding performance where life was easier. In 1951 other prisoners proposed to make my father director of the bakery shop. This was a prestigious position in the camp where bread was a major product. ‘My father performed his duties excellently and repaired the building of the bakery. He kept it in ideal order. In 1953, after Stalin’s death, the regime in the camp became weaker. My father wrote my mother She went to see my father. It took her over a week to get to the place. People were helping her when they heard that she was gong to visit a prisoner.