Tag #141723 - Interview #78774 (Fania Brantsovskaya)

I became a member of a group. I was given a rifle and then an automatic gun. I dragged it with me and took part in military missions. I rarely saw Doba. Since she looked like a Slavic girl, she joined an intelligence group. We blasted trains and placed explosives in the enemy's equipment. We shot and killed them. Yes, I did, I killed them and did so with ease. I knew that my dear ones were dead and I took my revenge for them and thousands others with each and every shot. Mikhail was at the head of a group. There were cooks and other logistics people in the unit to take care of the routines. We suffered from lack of vitamins. Once, a comrade of mine brought me half a lemon when he came back from a task. I thought that was very nice of him. Mikhail suffered from scurvy and wasn't involved in any missions. Somehow he managed to overcome his illness. I suffered from stomatitis. Our doctor prescribed me an injection of cow milk. They must have infected me with something. I got a huge abscess and fever, but somehow I managed to recover.

We made blouses from parachutes and colored them with onion peels and herbs to prevent them from luminescence in the dark. Mikhail managed to get children's boots for me. At some stage I was secretary of the Komsomol unit. On 24th December 1943 we went on a mission. We were to blast a bridge. There were only Komsomol members in our group and the mission was called a Komsomol one. The chief engineer of the local paper factory, a Polish man, was with us to help us.