Tag #147289 - Interview #78416 (Meyer Markhasin)

I was lucky to get evacuated in February 1942 via the frozen Ladozhskoye Lake. At first I went to see my wife in Borovichi. On the way I ate something wrong and felt really unwell. I was sitting in the station buffet with other evacuated students when an officer approached, asking: "What’s the matter with him?" They said: "Something wrong with his stomach, he’s dying." The officer quickly reached into his field bag, took out some powder and asked the bartender to get some water. Then he put the powder in the water and the guys opened my mouth and poured half a glass of water in. A bit later my stomach got better and I more or less revived. In this condition I arrived to my first wife in Borovichi. I was suffering from dysentery and could hardly stand on my legs. We were allowed free food in a canteen for the blockade survivors and were fed five times a day. But most interesting: when I approached the house of my wife and knocked on the door, she asked: "Who is it?» and I said: "Mark". It was for a long time known that people were dying in Leningrad, and she considered me dead. She opened the door pale asceiling plaster wondering how I managed to get out of that hell. For some time I lived in Borovichi with her, our four-month daughter Alenka and Zoya’s mother.