Saved by Her Mother's Stubbornness

I was born in the city of Nevel in the Pskov region, where my mother spent every summer. That is where the start of the war found us in June 1941. My mother decided at once to return home to Leningrad, where my father remained. He had already served on the Finnish front, and in the first days of the war he volunteered again. My mother and I returned to Leningrad.

“Russian peasants hid my grandparents for a long time, but someone betrayed them, and they were shot.”

My grandmother begged my mother to leave me with them in Nevel. She was sure that I would be better off there. But my mother refused, because I was still too small, and so she saved me. In the autumn of 1941 the Nazis occupied Nevel and the murders of Jews began. Few survived, only those who had managed to leave or hide. Russian peasants hid my grandparents for a long time, but someone betrayed them, and they were shot. In Nevel there is a mass grave and a memorial in honor of the eight hundred innocent old people, women, and children, among them my grandfather and grandmother.

From Leningrad I was evacuated without my mother, together with the kindergarten I attended, this was a compulsory evacuation. But soon my mother found me, and together we were evacuated to the city of Belebey in Bashkiria. The road to Bashkiria was very hard, we traveled a whole month in a dirty cold freight car, we starved. On the way I fell ill, and when we arrived it took a long time to recover.

We lived in a tiny cold room, and even that we found with difficulty. I was still very small and did not understand much, but I remember the constant feeling of hunger and cold.

My father received a heavy wound in the leg and a concussion, and lay a long time in hospital. In 1943 he tracked us down and came to Belebey, where we lived until 1944, when the blockade of Leningrad was lifted. We returned home to Leningrad, where we met Victory Day.