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It took us 3 days to reach the Headquarters of the partisan unit of General-major Kovpak. I reported to the guard that I had brought a group to join their partisan unit. The guard took away our weapons and took us to the commander of the unit. Kovpak told me that they had the direction of Stalin to reduce anyone returning from captivity to the rank of private, even the generals. I replied that I was ready to join his unit as a private. We were distributed between the subdivisions. I was enrolled into a cannon company to handle shells. I got acquainted with my comrades and fixed some anti-tank cannons. Our commissar was Semyon Vassilievich Rudnev, a very nice man. One day he told me that it was time for me to take an officer’s position. I became the political officer in a company and then the commissar of a battalion. I took part in all battles. We were moving to Ukraine from Byelorussia and then we were directed to take a march in Western areas of Ukraine. There was a ghetto and a camp for political prisoners-of-war in the town of Skalat, Ternopol region. We liberated the town from Germans and opened the gates of the ghetto and the prison. The Germans had big food storage facilities in this town. We gave the food products to the local population. We had horses and were a well-armed unit.
At the beginning there were about 600 people in this unit, but later their number exceeded 1000 people. There were 150 Jews in our partisan unit. Some Jews were hiding in the woods from Germans waiting until we came. Many families came to join us, but we couldn’t afford to keep families with us, because we were a military unit. We were arranging settlements for them in the woods to give shelter to women and children. We used every opportunity to supply them with food and medications. We also had our hospitals in such settlements. We also provided quite a few people with false documents.
In 1943 the Germans threw big forces to destroy us near Yaremcha, Ivano-Frankovsk region. We were in the woods and our commander was commissar Rudnev. He was killed in one of the battles. We separated in smaller units and moved to Zhytomir region. General Kovpak was wounded and taken to hospital by plane. This happened at the beginning of 1944. Then Pyotr Petrovich Vershygora, the former actor of the Kiev Russian Drama Theater, became our commander. At the beginning of the war he was an intelligence officer and then became a commanding officer of the intelligence unit in the Kovpak partisan unit. In 1944 we were fighting with Germans in Poland under his commandment.
I didn’t have any contact with my family throughout this period. The only thing I knew was that Germans occupied Kramatorsk in November 1941. I didn’t know whether my family survived.
At the beginning there were about 600 people in this unit, but later their number exceeded 1000 people. There were 150 Jews in our partisan unit. Some Jews were hiding in the woods from Germans waiting until we came. Many families came to join us, but we couldn’t afford to keep families with us, because we were a military unit. We were arranging settlements for them in the woods to give shelter to women and children. We used every opportunity to supply them with food and medications. We also had our hospitals in such settlements. We also provided quite a few people with false documents.
In 1943 the Germans threw big forces to destroy us near Yaremcha, Ivano-Frankovsk region. We were in the woods and our commander was commissar Rudnev. He was killed in one of the battles. We separated in smaller units and moved to Zhytomir region. General Kovpak was wounded and taken to hospital by plane. This happened at the beginning of 1944. Then Pyotr Petrovich Vershygora, the former actor of the Kiev Russian Drama Theater, became our commander. At the beginning of the war he was an intelligence officer and then became a commanding officer of the intelligence unit in the Kovpak partisan unit. In 1944 we were fighting with Germans in Poland under his commandment.
I didn’t have any contact with my family throughout this period. The only thing I knew was that Germans occupied Kramatorsk in November 1941. I didn’t know whether my family survived.
Period
Interview
Alexandr Nepomniaschy