Olena Korytnyk
Ukraine
Olena's father was Hryhorij Kozak (b. 1900), an economist from the countryside around Kyiv, Ukraine. Hryhorij was proud of his Ukrainian heritage, and was outspokenly critical of the Russian government that sought repeatedly to eradicate Ukrainian customs, history, and language . When presented with a "loyalty" oath, and asked to provide names of other dissidents, he refused, and was threatened with execution. Instead he was sentenced to six years in a Siberian forced labor camp in Archangel (Arkhangelsk, Russia). He had only been married for a year at this time, to Vera Hryshenko, a pediatrician, who moved to Archangel be near her imprisoned husband. She was pregnant with their first child when Hryhorij was arrested, but that child did not survive.
At right, the Hryshchenko family in Kyiv, 1906. Standing on the far right is Vera's father Volodymyr Hryshchenko; in front of him is her mother, holding 3-year-old Vera on her lap, with Vera's sister Natalia displaying a decorative fan. The three boys standing on the left are Vera's brothers, who were all killed by the Soviets.
Olena and her parents at Kiel, c. 1946
Hryhorij and Vera's first surviving child was Nina (born c.1935), and their next was Olena (born c.1939), both born in Archangel. After their father finished his sentence they weren't allowed to return to their hometown of Kyiv, so they settled in another Ukrainian town, Dnipropetrovsk (now called Dnipro). In 1941, the German army occupied that city, and the family decided they needed to get out. They ended up in Schleswig-Holstein Kiel-- an Ostarbeiter (East Workers) labor camp in Germany.
The family remained in Kiel for the next six or seven years. Olena's mother worked providing first aid medical care in the factories and her father did factory work. Nina worked cleaning the barracks where they all lived. Kiel was a munitions manufacturer, so the area was frequently shelled during the war. Most nights were spent in a bomb shelter. The confined spaces and locked doors were psychologically difficult for Olena's father due to his experience as a prisoner in Archangel.
When the war ended, all "Soviet" citizens were ordered to return to the Soviet Union, a situation her father desperately wanted to avoid. He persuaded an official in charge of the camp to sign papers saying he was from Poland instead so his family could join the group taken to a Polish displaced persons camp. That camp was overcrowded, so for six months the Kozaks were housed with a German family nearby. Then they moved to a Ukrainian camp, still in the district of Kiel.
Olena's father (standing at back) taught school in Kiel.
"Pedagogical [German Work Service]. Camp Korigen , School Year 1945" Olena's father, Г. Козак, is pictured 2nd from right in the top row.
Olena talks about growing up speaking many languages, both at home and at school. Click the arrow at right for a transcription.
Olena: So there's one thing that I don't want to--forgot to mention was they [her parents] speak, spoke Ukrainian all the time. And that was... the Russians always wanted say Ukrainians are Russians and the Ukrainians always said, no, we are not Russians. Anyway, my parents always spoke Ukrainian, but when he returned from the Archangel, they spoke only Russian and I spoke Russian till I was ten years old because that was my mother tongue.
And, before that-- so when I was in the Polish camp for about six months, I spoke, I went to Polish school, but I was still speaking Russian, but we were sort of, went to Polish school. And then when the Ukrainian camps were established in the DP camps, we finally moved to Ukrainian camp and that's when I started speaking Ukrainian. That was about it, when I was ten years old.
In the years following the war, Germany was in upheaval and many of the refugees were trying to leave, most applying to go to America. Since Olena's family was in the British-controlled section of West Germany, they applied to go to Australia, desperate to avoid the threat of being sent back to the Soviet Union, which at any time could mean death or imprisonment for Hryhorij.
Vera heard they needed nurses in Australia and she hoped her medical training would give them preference. But their application was denied because she was a doctor, not a nurse. Tragically, the combined stress of the war, the fear of losing her husband, and the constant hardship of their lives had taken a toll on Vera. She died in June of 1948.
Olena in New Guinea, 1950s.