Interview by Ruvim Kapustin
My grandmother Lidya Pilat had lived through World War II. “Throughout the war I was a little girl. During that period of time I lived in Ukrane, in a small village. In the winter of 1943 our village had been the front line. Almost all of the villagers were evacuated, but our family stayed because my grandmother was paralyzed and couldn’t move. Our village was in a stale mate for about 4 months; often planes would fly by and destroy everything in their path. There were no schools therefore no one went to school. All the glass in the windows was gone and many houses had been destroyed. When the war left, it left behind dead people and the destruction of many houses. The dead were getting buried into one hole, so in one grave there were up to 20 people. There were no caskets. What I remember most about is that almost none of the fathers and young men returned to our village, and that was a great tragedy in almost every family. Only the old men and women with kids were left. After the war lots of explosives and mines were left. Onto which people would stumble onto and blow up, mostly children. Even my 16 year old cousin stumbled onto a mine, her arms were torn off and her eyes were gone. When the atomic bomb was thrown on the Japanese cities, I had no clue that had happened, same with the attack on Pearl Harbor. I found out about that after the war was over and I was going to school again.”
Interview by Ruslan Kaspustin
I interviewed my grandma, Lidya Pilat, who live in Ukraine during World War II. She was born in 1939. Her parents worked in a Kolkhoz, which is a collective farm. From her village, all the husbands were taken by the Russian army to serve and all were killed; none came back alive. Before the war, her dad was put into prison because he was a Christian and didn’t take a weapon. In the part where she lived, war started in 1942, but they were only notified that they were at war with Germany when Kiev was already under attack. When Germans came, at first they took all the young males and females and sent them to special camps in Germany and were forced to work for the Germans; her sister was also taken. Also the collective farms were broken apart and the land was given to the people. In 1943, Germans were attacking. At this time, Lidya was 4 years old. They were destroying everything that was in their way and they almost made it to the Ural Mountains. Then the Russians got organized and started fighting back; the Germans fell back and destroyed everything when they were leaving when they were leaving that area. In 1943, the Russian front was stationed in their village, Voronsovka, for three months and in their neighboring village, Novaharodka, which was about six miles away, were the Germans. During the war when there was no army in their village they took care of their cows, crops, and other households, but when the army came all they did was sit in the basement because it was the safest place. For three months straight there was war between the Russians and the Germans. Germans were mostly bombing her village with airplanes and the Russians were bombing the Germans with katyushas, which were rockets that were mounted on a truck. Germans destroyed almost every house in that village and the people were evacuated, but Lidya and her family stayed because they had a paralyzed grandma. They basically lived and stayed in their basement during the war because when bombs were exploding they ripped houses apart and destroyed everything, so the only safe place was the basement. There were so many air raids that all the people in that village knew the sound of the German airplanes, so when they would hear the sound everyone was running and jumping into dugouts for safety. One time a German airplane flew by and dropped a bomb on every house. When he was done with the first row of houses, he turned around and started to bomb the second row. Her neighbor had a shed as well as a house and the German threw two bombs, one on the house and one on the shed, destroying the house all the way. The shed was filled with horses and Russian soldiers that were hiding. When the bomb exploded the whole shed was blown to pieces and all you were able to see were blown off arms, legs, some guts, horses mixed with people, and blood all over. Everything was ripped to pieces. During that time, they had a heavy winter with lots of snow. All the windows were knocked out and houses destroyed. It was a very hard time. When the Russians forced the Germans out there were hundreds of dead people on the streets and in holes. Later they were all gathered and placed into one huge hole. There was nothing to eat except for potatoes and beets that were in the basement. All the cows, chickens, and other food was taken by the Russian or the German army so they could survive. When the German army left, people started coming back to their houses, but there were no houses and no food, so there was starvation. Some people were starting to plant crops on the fields even though they didn’t have any tools to work wit; all the towns and villages were destroyed. The war ended on May 9, 1945. Many families were left without parents and many were getting blown up even though most of the mines and bombs were taken out of the ground because when the Germans where they dropped little toys that were loaded with little bombs, so if someone tries to play with it they would get blown up. Lidya’s sister was blown up by a hidden mine and now she is living as an invalid and blind. The war destroyed everything; less people were alive, many kids left without parents, and there was nothing to wear, no new clothes. Before the war they had everything, but after they almost lost everything they had. Many people were very poor and had nothing to eat. “My most lasting memory is how the war ruined the lives of many people and everything else…thousands were left wandering the streets without houses, food, or clothes. Also I still remember the horror of the starvation.” Lidya didn’t know anything about Pearl Harbor or the two atom bombs that were thrown on Japan until she went to school after the war.