Tag #151470 - Interview #101609 (Remma Kogan)

In early 1944 we moved to Simferopol to be nearer Odessa.  My father’s friend Yuri Robertovich Lang sent us an invitation letter from Simferopol where he was working. My father was at the front. Some time later the unit where my father was working was transferred to the Crimea and my father found us and we went to his unit where they gave us a meal and we ate to our heart’s content for the first time in many years.   During the Great Patriotic War my father was at the front near Moscow, in Ukraine, Northern Caucasus and in the Crimea. Throughout the war he only spent 11 days in standby. In January 1945 he traveled through Odessa and then he went to Romania. After the war with Germany was over my father was sent to the war with Japan [24]. 

From Simferopol I sent my documents to Odessa Medical College and since I had all excellent marks in my school certificate they admitted me without exams. In September 1944 I went to live in Odessa. I lived in our prewar apartment. Other tenants moved into one room during the Romanian rule, but another room was vacant and I moved into it. The ceiling in my room was damaged and I pinned newspaper sheets on it to cover the holes through which I could see the sky. There was no heating and it was terribly cold. I slept in a fur jacket wrapping myself in a jacket.  I also had food problems: I cut a big onion into a saucer, added some oil and salt and ate it heartily. However, I was healthy. There were many Jewish students and teachers in our college. My mother and brother also moved to Odessa in early 1945. I remember the Victory Day very well. On the morning of 9 May somebody knocked on my door.  When I opened the door I heard screams ‘Victory!