I want to tell you one story from the past about my family.
It happened in times of the World War II, my grandmother was a nurse, and grandfather was a lieutenant of the Soviet Union army. She just was working in a hospital and he just was defending the native land. But one day grandpa was wounded, and then he was brought to the hospital, where my grandmother worked. I can’t understand now, why she chose my grandpa, because she saw a lot of wounded people every day. Maybe, it was a real love - Love that was higher than the war, hatred, death. Grandma took care of that lieutenant and then they got married.
In my childhood I saw that my grandfather and grandmother were happy in their marriage. And I must be thankful to the fortune that it presented this meeting to my relatives.
Irina Stupka,
Lyceum of IT,
Dnepropetrovsk
In my childhood I saw that my grandfather and grandmother were happy in their marriage. And I must be thankful to the fortune that it presented this meeting to my relatives.
Irina Stupka,
Lyceum of IT,
Dnepropetrovsk
I live in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. During the World War II, which was called the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, all the territory of Ukraine was occupied and there hardly was a family which did not suffer from fascists. Everything was ruined or burned out. Thousands of civil people were killed, others suffer from starvation as the German soldiers took all the food away . But even among fascists there were normal people who had to put on the uniform but they did not lose human nature. This story was told by my mom and it is about my great-grand mom and grand mom. “It happened in autumn 1941. My granny lived in a village not far from Dnepropetrovsk. When the fascists came to this place, my mom was 10 months old.One day two soldiers entered the house and began to demand bread , milk and eggs. My granny had nothing and she knew that she could be killed if she refused to give products.But when the soldiers noticed the child, they went away. In some time they returned bringing some food for the child. Of course, they took it away from some other person but this food helped my mom to survive.” You can see the photo of my great-grand mother.
Pavel Tkachenko
Lyceum of IT
Again a story connected with the World War II. My great-grand mother graduated from the Leningrad (now St Petersburg) Technical Institute, Russia. Being a student, she got married in 1936. In 1938 their first daughter – my granny- was born and two years later one more girl. It was a happy family. But then the WWII broke and my great-grand father went to the front in its very first days. My great-grand mother and her children were evacuated to the Siberia. She was going to have a baby. Very soon she received a notice that her husband had missed. Nothing is known about him till now though his children and later grandchildren have been trying to find any information about his fate - at least to find out where he was killed and his grave is. My great-grand mother lost her husband, father and brother during this war. All her life she devoted to her children and never got married again.
Irina Zema
Lyceum of IT
I had a great grandfather who took part in the Second World War. He was one of those, who captured Berlin. His name was Ivan Davyidenko. He was father of my grandmother. Our family thinks that we have photo of his sign on Reichstag! His initials in Russian are in a red circle on the second photo. He had many war awards. Vlad Babkin,
Lyceum of IT
Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine
I know my genealogic tree from the 19th century.
Historical events affected my family considerably.
One of my great-grand moms Lyudmila was born in 1923 in the Crimea, Ukraine. In the period of the World War II she married a German officer, moved to Germany, became a vine-maker.
My aunt Viktoriya who lives in Simferopol, the Crimea, told me about her grand-dad Yura.The WWII. The territory is occupied and the fascists are making lists of the youth to send to Germany to work. Yura and two neighbourly girls have to go. The girls’ mother, Maria, decides to go with them. On the first of August in 1942 they arrive to the city of Bremen. They are sent to work on farms. The work is hard. Jura keeps a diary, making his records every day. This diary was saved. Here are some records from it. “August, 1, 1943. I’m18. It’s my birthday. I’m here in Germany for a year. I remember my birthday when I was 15. I remember how we all gathered together. It seems to me that it has never been. But only 3 years have passed. Everything has changed. This awful war is going on.”
“August, 2, 1943. I got a letter from mother. Worked very much. At night there was a thunderstorm, and then they bombed.”
“October, 10, 1943. Bombing for 2 days. The alarm began at 3.30 a.m. the day before yesterday. The enormous squadron of airplanes. They bombed Bremen, Oldenburg. A squadron followed a squadron. Till evening. Everything is burning.”
My aunt Maya lived in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Her mother is a Russian, and father is a Jew. In the 1990ies, when most Jews immigrated abroad, Maya with her mother also went to Jerusalem. At the age of 18 Maya joined the army. Having served a proper term, she remained to serve in the Israel army.
My aunt Olena was born and lived in Simferopol, the Crimea. As the Crimea is home for many nations, many Greeks live there. Being a schoolgirl, she got acquainted with a Greek – Kostas. After school they got married. In the 90ies, when Greeks began to return to their motherland, Olena with her husband moved to Saloniki, where they live now. They have two children.
Alexander Medvedev
LIT
Hello everybody!
My name is Julia and I would like to tell about my great grandfather. I have never seen him as he tragically died (however, he lived up to 84 years). He’s my grandmother’s father. There are some family stories connected with him and it’s one of them. When the WWII and then the Great Patriotic war (it was called so in the USSR) began he and his large family lived in Russia in the Kaluga region in a very distant village. Kaluga is very close to Moscow. The German troops occupied this region in October 1941 on their movement to Moscow. The village is far from roads but fascists came there. They gathered all local men together and two policemen were accompanying them in a column. Imagine: a thick forest, a large group of young men, only two armed policemen and nobody dared to run away but my great grandfather did. He was not called up for military service because he was a person with childhood disability (one leg was much shorter the other). But he managed to escape and ran to his house. There he lied down on a bench in the kitchen (in Russian villages there were not chairs but benches), his wife put some cloth and clothes on this bench and all his six children sat on that bench. The police were looking for him and several times they came into the house. But they saw only frightened children sitting on a bench. In such a way my great grandfather escaped being taken to Germany or killed as he was unable to go fast. He lived a long life and one day I hope to go to the Kaluga region and visit his grave. For me he is a hero. After the war he headed a collective farm (kolkhoz in Russian) and as they say was a good and honest person.
Julia G.,
Lyceum of Information Technologies,
Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine
