Science Forums 2

[alexander]

Since i am from Russia, no, not really, though my family did have to endure a lot to go through the war. My great grand father was a soldier, he had returned from Russo-Finish war and a few, if i recall correctly around 4 months later, around winter time of 1941 he got a ticket summoning him to the front line that by that time was getting closer and closer to Leningrad, actually if i have my history correct, Leningrad was already besieged at that time, anyways, he was ordered to walk over the ice to the front line and that he will eventually pick up a weapon and some ammo when he gets close enough. At that point my grandfather was around 14. He had to work in the factory producing ammunition, infact he didn't finish 8th grade until he was already married. And if i am not mistaken my great grandmother worked at either a clothes factory or as a chef. Do excuse my inaccuracies, as i am recalling things that i was told when i was 12. My great grandmother passed away, and since moving to the US, i have not had a chance to sit down and take the history of my family quite down, though there might be a chance that my grandfather may be coming over here for a couple of weeks, i will use that opportunity...

So they were staying in Leningrad when it was beseiged, as my great grandmother recalled she came home one night after her work and found the house in ruins. My grandfather just happened to be in the kitchen at the time, the entire house came down, and one of the walls of the kitchen fell on the other, leaving a little triangle of space where my grandfather happened to be at the time of the explosion and he was miraculously alive. They then decided to move out of Leningrad to the surrounding area, so under the cover of night they boarded a barge and fled to Kronstadt under horrible bombardment and constant fire of german artillery. I really don't recall a lot after that, all i remember of the story is that in 1944 my grandmother got a note that in the counterstrike offensive (finally successful) to break the ring around the city in the winter of 44 somewhere around the (very small) town of Senyavino her husband was killed. My grandfather spent considerable effort to find the location where he was burried, unfortunately we still don't know that for sure, though he has found a plaque where our last name was mentioned, really don't know whether that was really him (as i think there were several people with names starting with "A" that fought those front lines most of which were impossible to trace).

On my grandmother's side, she lived in a town (when i say a little town, i really mean a village-like town, with no town center or anything, which is the case for both towns i have mentioned here) near Smolensk, i know that her brothers died in the war, though the history that side of the family i know even less, if i am not mistaken, germans did occupy their town, and i don't recall that side of the story as that was told even less often, infact maybe a couple of bleeps a couple of times, and that was even more years ago, so firstly i was like 10 and that was over 12 years ago. But all through my family history through the time, hunger, cold, fear, not knowing what will happen tomorrow...

Anyhow, this is not exactly what you are looking for so i will stop here. I am only typing all of this to hopefully make you understand that Holocaust or not, there were a lot more people that suffered in that war, and no one party that was either singled out or got hurt, including Germans, deserved the kind of suffering they went through...