The Ukrainian Jewish Family Album

Holodomor
Sima Medved
Photo taken in: Orativ village, Kyiv region, 1934
Interviewer: Ella Orlikova
I’m sitting, third from the left, with the best collective farmers of Orativ
village. There was an unbelievable famine in the village and in all of Ukraine.
Carrots I found in the fields were my main food for a long time. When we
received the order to give everything to the state, including the last stocks
of grain, we hid two kilos of wheat so that nobody could find it. Women
were crying, ‘We shall die, we shall all starve to death,’ but I tried to cheer
them up and said, ‘Hey, we shall live to bake pies.’ We all took care of each
other.
Basya Chayka
Photo taken in: Kyiv, 1928
Interviewer: Tatyana Chayka
Me at two years old. From my
preschool years, I have a strong
memory of the famine of 1933,
when in front of my own eyes a
homeless child stole the bread
that my mother had just received
with her bread card. My mother
began to cry, and I felt very
scared.
Mark Derbaremdiker
Photo taken in: Kyiv, 1937
Interviewer: Ella Orlikova
Me as a student of the Institute of
Light Industry. I remember the early
1930s—the period of famine—very well.
Many Jews in Berdychiv were starving.
We had charity lunches at school and it
was a big joy to see a piece of cabbage
in our soup. Many people moved to
bigger towns because they had better
supplies and sent parcels with bread
or crusts from there. When the parcels
were delivered the bread inside was
already covered with mold, but we ate
it with pleasure. My father and older
brother were working and received
bread cards, so we managed somehow.
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