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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 2017 WWW.UNWLA.ORG 13 BORDERS, BOMBS, AND . . . TWO RIGHT SHOES World War II through the Eyes of a Ukrainian Child Refugee Survivor In December 2016, UNWLA Member at Large Dr. Larissa Zaleska Onyshkevych, published a book of reminiscences, a memoir of World War II, as expe- rienced by a child in Ukraine and then as a refugee in Slovakia, Austria, and Germany. Printed by Cre- ateSpace (an Amazon.com Company), the 222-page book depicts daily life under two dictatorial regimes, Soviet and then Nazi. Dr. Onyshkevych’s book de- scribes a devastatingly painful time in history and provides information about interrogations, arrests, and threats of executions, sheltering of Jews, a Nazi internment camp, and postwar threats of repatria- tion. Also included is a detailed description of life in postwar DP (displaced persons) refugee camps and how this experience affected young students psycho- logically, academically, and later professionally. While the book describes the horrors of these years, the author stresses the positive experiences that she had and saw along her journey, placing special em- phasis on the kindness of many friends, as well as quite a few strangers, who often went out of their way to help the refugees. The book includes 30 pages of notes, which provide historical background related to the events described; there are also numerous sketches by the author’s friends (people who lived through similar experiences), 5 maps, 78 photographs, assorted doc- uments, two timelines (one related to historical events and the other to the family’s odyssey), a glos- sary, and an index of names. An excerpt from Bor- ders, Bombs, and . . . Two Right Shoes follows. ______________________________________________________ BORDERS, BOMBS, AND . . . TWO RIGHT SHOES Chapter 5: Was I to be the 6,000,001st Victim? ( OR: The Case of the Grey Umbrella with a White Crocodile Leather Handle) In 1939, the Halychyna (or Galicia) part of western Ukraine had a population of close to 6 million. Out of that number, almost 4 million were Ukrainians (approx. 65%), a million were Poles (16.5%), 600,000 were Jews, and 49,000 were Germans and others. But in the cities, the proportion was different. In my town, Stryi, the population of 30,000 plus, consisted of almost equal parts of Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews. For children, access to education kept changing depending on the ruling foreign regime. In the first four grades, the education was mostly in the native language of the children, while in the secondary schools, students had to attend Polish schools with some Ukrainian courses. By 1930, the Polish administration reduced the number of Ukrainian schools, gymnasia, and teachers’ semi- naries to just a few, mostly private ones. During the Nazi/German occupation, most of the Jewish population of Stryi was forcibly relo- cated to one part of the city. It was then that I heard the word ghetto for the first time, and initially did not really grasp its significance. There were announcements all over the city forbidding non-Jews to provide shelter to Jews, who, instead, were to live “in specially cre- ated Jewish housing areas” of the city, i.e. the ill- famed ghettos. Those who provided food or shel- ter to Jews were to be punished by death . When I was about 7 or 8 years old, one Sunday morning I was on my way to our school, where all students and teachers usually gathered before going to church in an organized manner; such a meeting was called exorta (from the Latin, a preparatory talk). On that day I was a little late, and as I rushed by the old Jewish quarter to get to
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