Embedded Files
Each record represents a microcosm of pre-war and WW-II Soviet social dynamics. The lucky moments and the tragedies are often detailed in a single line or a short sentence. Sometimes, the very absence of the name speaks volumes.
Given that many Soviet records were already digitized, one can trace their family movements and terrible irreversible losses they have incurred.
It is universally accepted that Soviet industrial evacuees had to indure terrible hardhips in Urals, Siberia, Central Asia, and the Volga regions. However, those would pale in comparison to a fate of the civilians that were left behind in the occupied territiries.
Couple of examples of such evacuation records are included below. Extrapolate the individual records onto ~ 800,000 to 900,000 of Ukrainian Jews, and you can internalize the scale of the evacuation. The logistics, the lack of living quarters, inability to contact their loved ones, the trauma of losing family members in a foreighn land, the hardships of the return, the realisation of what has transpired back home, the lies and the coverup by the Soviet officials, of etc. , etc.
The Jews , who were left behind, faced the forced eviction (often performed by the local Nazi collaborators), and the rifles of the einsatzgruppen death squads. According to the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, approximately 1,400,000 - 1,500,000 of Ukrainian Jews were murdered.
Record # 216 has Dobrusha (Debora) Chaimovna Gimelberg. She is a daughter of Chaim and Leya Gimelberg from Repki. She was married, moved out of USSR to a Polish city Przemyśl in ~1936. By 1939 she and her 4 year old son Felix had to flee from the approaching nazi armies. They came back to Repki. Then in 1941 she is again evacuating. Now she is going to Siberia with her organization (her essential profession was a bookkeeper). She is taking her mother Leya alone. This means that her father Chaim ben Gertzel is no longer alive. Dobrusha's husband Michael Vasiko (found in other records) is not going with them. He was either murdered or conscripted to the Red Army.
Next to Dobrusha is her sister Fania Chaimovna Shneiderman (former Gimelberg). She is evacuating with her 1-year old daughter Tamara. Fania's husband Shlomo is in the Red Army too.
This evacuation card details a group of people traveling to city of Gorki, Voronezh Oblast. They are all familes and personnel of Plant #20. This plant would be manufacturing aviation engines for a Plant #21 (famous Ilyushin and Lavochkin fighter plane production facility). In 1942 alone Plant 21 have assembled 2,905 fighter planes.
Interesting detail: In the later stages of war, Factory #20/#21 were building famous tactical bomber Il-2. The aluminum was supplied by USA.
Below are few contextual translations depicting 'essential workers' occupations:
Record #3103: Vasiliy Kuzmin, engineer; a very high ranking technical position at the time
Record #3106: Ekaterina Ivanova, milling machine operator (RUS:'токарь') ; highly skilled industrial personnel
Record # 3107: Iosif Aronovich Gimelberg [production facility supervisor], his sister Mera Aronovna [bookkeeper], and their parents Aaron Getzelevich and Essiya Faivelovna. [translator's comment: the older parents are listed as Chernigov residents. Yet they resided in Repki before 1936]
The following information was submitted by the Gimelberg family:
Iosif Gimelberg (son of Aron Gimelberg) was initially hired as production facility supervisor. His group was responsible for aviation motors assembly. The motors were used in the Ilushin fighter planes. Iosif's last position during the war was Chief Engineer of Plant No 20. After the WW-II communists began a full scale discrimination campaign against the Jews in high positions. Iosif was demoted without cause. He eventually wrote a letter to a minister of heavy indistry. Shortly after mailing his letter, Iosif was found dead on the way to work with his skull crushed. Offical investigation was quickly terminated, coroner's report stated "accidental fall"
Page updated
Report abuse