Letter sent from: Village of Sinhai, Korosten raion, Zhytomyr oblast
Letter describes events in (1932-1933) in: Village of Syniukhyn Brid, Pervomaisk raion, Odesa oblast
Current location name: Village of Syniukhyn Brid, Pervomaisk raion, Mykolaiv oblast
Yevdokiia Kaminska was orphaned as a result of the famine. Born in 1928, she was the only child to survive in a family of five when her parents and two older brothers died. She ended up in a collective farm orphanage called a patronat. The collective farm took the roof off her parents’ house for the collective farm garage and destroyed the walls. She describes in detail how living as an orphan during the Nazi occupation and the Stalinist repressions affected her childhood. She looked after and milked cows as a 13 year-old under occupation, then was sent to Mykolaiv to work as a construction worker. Later, she was jailed for two years.
While in exile in the Far East, she met her husband, a prison guard. She writes about deprivation, hardship, and how the government never properly compensated her for all of that, for taking away her home. “I wish I had died and my parents stayed alive because of everything I had to endure.”
Ukrainian transcription available.
