Tag #144368 - Interview #78096 (samuel sukhenko)

Once I ran into a pre-war colleague. He was an engineer. He showed me a narrow green paper with the words of the sadly known instruction: "For all kikes of the city of Kiev..." He was a Ukrainian, and his wife was a Jew. Not far from the street leading directly to Babi Yar, he sensed something, and they turned to the nearest lane. The same day they left Kiev for a village; after some time, they came back. He had a two-room flat, so he hid his wife in the second room, bricked up a door, leaving a narrow hole near the floor. The hole was covered with a carpet. When his neighbors asked, he said his wife had been at Babi Yar. For almost two years, she lived this way, and lost her mind. Moreover, her sister came. She was in the military and escaped. He hid her in the same place. My colleague fed them both, cooking in small portions, for neighbors could suspect nothing. The most dangerous time was when Germans turned out people from Kiev and burned houses. But he decided, "Come what may" - and didn't go anywhere. All of them survived, and later, his wife recovered. That was the first time I heard the words "Babi Yar.