From Holodomor to the Holocaust: the story of an American family with Ukrainian roots

Practically all the tragedies of the twentieth century that fell to the lot of Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians and Jews fell to the share of the family of Pola Chertok. She arrived in the United States with her parents at the age of five - on the boat, as the very first immigrants arrived. Paula grew up in California and considers herself an American, but at the same time she carefully keeps her family’s immigrant past. Her parents and grandparents passed through the millstones of Soviet history of the twentieth century. Wars, Holodomor, Holocaust ... On the eve of January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, ForumDaily tells the story of an American family with Ukrainian-Polish-Jewish roots.

Photo: Shutterstock

Maternal relatives

Paula Chertok maternal grandfather, Ukrainian Jew Grigory Moiseevich, passed the First World War, fell into German captivity, ended up in Germany, and from there even tried to escape to the United States. He swam to the American coast in the engine room of the ship. From the constant proximity of the engine and the heat of the firebox, the young man’s eyes were flushed, which was taken by the border guards for an unknown disease. As a result, the traveler who traveled a long way went back, returned to Ukraine, and settled near Kiev. There also lived the future grandmother Paula Chertok, Pauline.

«In the village where she lived, there was a raid of red gangs. They didn’t break into her house just because grandmother lied to them that they had typhus in the hut. So she saved her whole family.“- recalls Paul's family stories.

Soon the young people met and got married. They had a daughter - the future mother of Paula Chertok, Anna. It was there, near Kiev, that the Holodomor found them.

«The famine in Kiev was not as strong as in the east of the country, but it was also very difficult to survive. One day, grandfather saw one man walking down the street with a bag of potatoes. Soviet patrols stopped him and, seeing the potato, shot him point-blank and took the bag. It happened in front of my grandfather. On that day, he decided to leave“- says Paul.

The family moved to Mariupol (at that time, Zhdanov), where it was surprisingly satisfying than in other areas of eastern Ukraine. Grigory Moiseevich managed to get a job at the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant. One day someone knocked on the door of their house. On the threshold was a barely alive old friend of the head of the family: dirty, in rags, extremely exhausted. He was declared a fist, sent to Siberia, from where the unfortunate somehow managed to escape. Gregory, who had already occupied a rather high position at the plant, found him a job, straightened out new documents and, in fact, gave him a new life.

«This man got up on his feet, and in a fit of gratitude he told my grandfather: if you only need me, I will always be ready to help“- says Paul.

Paul Chertok in his youth. Photos from the family archive

According to her, the former "fist" did not keep promises. When in a few years Mariupol was occupied by the Germans, he did not render any help to his benefactor, a Jew. Grandfather Paula Chertok, having survived the Holodomor, died in the Holocaust ...

«My mother and grandmother were able to escape from the city literally several hours before the occupation of Mariupol, October 7 1941. Back in the Civil War, the red gangs killed my mom's brother. He left a wife and three sons. In those days, against the backdrop of war and famine, a single woman simply could not feed three children, and our family adopted one of the boys, Yashu. During World War II, he went to the front as a military doctor, and often wrote letters to home, insisting that the family leave Mariupol. Somehow he managed to briefly escape from the front and persuade his family to evacuate from the city. However, the men at that time were no longer allowed into the evacuation, and the grandfather was forced to stay in Mariupol».

Trains at that time did not go, and people got out of the city themselves: on foot or on horseback with carts. So grandma Paula Chertok left with her future mother and neighbor. Anne was at that time 16 years old.

«People were leaving the city. Soon they reached the fork. One road went to Rostov, the other - to Taganrog. I don’t remember exactly which family we chose, but later it turned out that everyone who went the other way had died during the air attack. It was so close to my mother that she saw with her own eyes the shelling and death of children under bombs.».

Finally, the refugees got to the freight train filled with soldiers. Anna and her friend begged the soldiers, and they let them and Polina into the car. The soldiers went to Stalingrad, but landed women somewhere deep in Russia, in a city free from the Germans at that time.

«Mom told me that my grandmother was so stunned by the experience and separation from her husband that she simply stopped reacting to what was happening. Someone had torn a woolen scarf off her at the station, but she didn’t even notice“- says Paul.

When the family reached Chelyabinsk, Polina immediately wrote to her neighbor in Mariupol to find out about the fate of her husband. In response to wrote a detailed letter.

«The neighbor replied that the grandfather suffered greatly, thinking that his family also died under fire, and that it was he who sent them to death. Therefore, he has already given up on his fate and did not think about escaping. The grandfather was shot along with almost all the other Jews of Mariupol - according to the same scenario as the Jews were shot at Babi Yar in Kiev"- summed up Paul.

Music School in Mariupol, 1937 year. Photos from the family archive

Paternal relatives

In the life of his father Paula Chertok, Mikhail, the war left another mark. A born Polish Jew, he lived in a small place in Belarus, and was 10 years older than her mother.

«At the time of his birth, in 1914, the territory where he was born, still belonged to Poland. That is why we, as nee Poles, managed to subsequently go to Poland, and then to the USA. The Soviet government came to his place in 1939, and at random, he appointed his father as mayor of this village, although he was never a communist. In a sense, it saved him. Before the arrival of the Germans, no one yet knew that they were killing Jews, but rumors that the invaders were cracking down on the Communists were already going. That is why the father and his brother hurried to leave. As a result, most of the Jews of the town were killed. The Nazis killed his father and mother in front of his two sisters. Riva и Sonyawho were sent to the local ghetto. In fact, the ghetto was set - much more than we know.“- explains Paul.

Riva and Sonya were forced to work for a Ukrainian family that collaborated with the Germans, and the girls spent the night in the ghetto. One day, the head of this family, who worked for the invaders, came home and told the girls not to return to the ghetto that night.

«He hid them for two weeks, but when it became too dangerous, he told them to leave. Sonya and Riva had to hide in the forest. Subsequently, the Germans caught them and sent them to Europe, where the Americans had already freed the girls. So in the forties, they were able to travel to the United States. By the way, father's third sister also survived. She managed to escape after killing her parents and get a job at the house of some old man. Outwardly, she did not look like a Jew, and did not admit to him her roots. By the way, they later had a romance, and then they went to Poland together.“- says Paul.

Subsequently, the family reunited in the United States, Paula grew up in California and married an American. Her two children no longer speak Russian, but the memory of the tragic events of the last century is still kept in their family.

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