Tag #118318 - Interview #88025 (Iosif Yudelevichus)

It was a long trip. Fortunately, my parents had enough money, which was not devaluated yet, for father to buy food for us at the stations. Sometimes the fugitives were given soup or gruel. I quickly got used to eat anything I was given, without picking and choosing. Thus, we reached the town of Sarapul in Udmurtia [about 1300 km from Moscow]. We had stayed in Sarapul evacuation point for couple of days. Father decided to head to Sverdlovsk – first of all his distant relative Chazan lived there, and secondly there were some of father’s friends from student times. We came to Chazan’s wife in Sverdlovsk. Chazan was dead. His wife Maria Genrikhovna accommodated us and parents looked into other arrangements. Father found his old fellow student, who was working as a doctor, and he helped us go to regional center Rehta. It was an industrial town, having several plants and factories. The first thing mother did was going to the market. It was empty. We could not even get potatoes. We understood that the war would not be over soon, and we had to get ready for a long life in evacuation. That is why mama said that we could not stay in the town, where it was problematic to get even potatoes. We came back to Sverdlovsk to Maria Genrikhovna, who hospitably received us again. Father again addressed to his friend, who suggested that we should go to Sukhoy Log, Sverdlovsk Oblast [about 2000 km from Moscow] in couple of days. It was a large settlement in agricultural area and father’s friend said that we would have potato there for sure. Sukhoy Log consisted of industrial community and couple of dispersed hamlets. First we were sent to the resort area Kuryii, a scenic place at the bank of the river. Here we stayed for a while. Father was looking for a job. Every day he asked if there was anything for him. He was promised the position of a lawyer, but he had not got the offer. We came back to Sukhoy Log.