Nikolaev Georgiy Stepanovich

Georgy Stepanovich with volunteers: Julia and Bianca

Interviewers: Julia (Ukraine), Bianca (Austria)

Tell about youself

My name is Nikolaev Georgiy Stepanovich. I was born 16/09/1923. Currently I live in Konstantinovka Donetskaya oblast. I spent my childhood in Ternovka, Nicolaevskaya oblast. My nationality is Bulgarian.

Life before war

I lived in a small village. We were like one big family. We called it “one mafia”. When I was 16 years old I worked in a shoe factory in Nikolayev, we made shoes for military.

One day me and other workers from our factory had to go on the boat so we could visit “Ural Mash”: During our trip Germans bombed the city and destroyed everything .When me and my friends came to work nobody was there, the shoe factory was empty. I didn't have a choice so I got back to my village I stayed there for couple of days and in May 1942 a big group of people from my village including me were forced by the Nazis to go to Germany and to work there.

We were deported by a train for goods from Ternovka to Nikolayev and later to Koenigsberg. As soon as we got to Germany a wealthy man came to the train station and picked 50 random men from our group. I wanted to stay together with my friends and other people I knew, but it happened that I was separated from everybody. I couldn't even think that I will never see them again.

The man took me and 49 other people to the place called Kabelbudel and we stayed there from 1942 till 1943. It was a railway station and we had to work there. Our job was to construct a railroad. We had to carry all the details to the destination and make landscape for the railroad flat . After the road was finished, the chief brought our group to Wallenstein to do the same job.

In Duisburg, Essen (only for 2 days) and Hamburg we cleaned the road from stones because soldiers were building bunkers for hiding Germans from the Russians with escalators, responsible for that was military hospital. In Hamburg I worked until the end of war 1944-1945. We were building a bunker for the local habitats.

My impression from Germany was bad from the very beginning till the very end. Not all Germans are bad and all Russians are good. There were some brave local Germans who brought us something to eat, mostly sandwiches. They had to watch out for the chief of the camp because it was a big risk. It was a big secret.

We lived in the barracks on the metallurgical street. In each one were 50 people. We had to sleep on 3-bank-beds. They were wooden with paper made base. Life was very hard. We were working from darkness till darkness. There was no any difference between French or Polish or Ukrainian prisoners they all were equal. I had a friend from Amsterdam and he really wanted me to come and visit him when the war will be over, but I said that I just want to go home and nowhere else.

The food they gave us was very poor. We ate unwashed and uncooked spinach, beetroot and Soya bones. We starved a lot. We couldn't even buy food with the 2-5 Deutsche Marks they gave us, because as I told, we worked the whole day and didn't have any free time. Also I wasn't allowed to leave the territory. Even on the weekends we had to work. All workers were treaten in the same inhuman way. The Germans didn't care about the nationality.

Were there any good moments during your life in Germany?

During departure to the western Germany our train stopped at the railway station. To the right was station building and to the left huge pipes. One of the German soldiers said that we gonna work in the place to the left. It was a huge oven where they burned people. We thought that we gonna die, we saw planes in the sky and bombing started. The train went to the west. And we found out that we were saved. It was the best moment of life in Germany. We avoid the death.

Life after war

Even when the war was going to be over the Germans didn't change their behavior. One day a guard was saying „Deutschland kaputt“, so we knew that the war was finally over.

The Americans came and liberated us. They made a camp for all workers from the little camps. We were about 7000 people. They took care of us and gave us excellent food. Purpose of the camp was to collect and connect all prisoners so it will be easier to give food and take care of us. There I lived about one month with all people whom I worked with.

After this month Zhukov came to the camp and organized transportation to Poland. Zhukov was the right hand of Stalin. There I was checked by the KGB and police because the Soviets wanted to get sure that I was no German spion. Three months later they brought me via Moscow to Leningrad where I joined the Russian army.

So on the 25th February 1947 I arrived back home in Ternovka after 6 years being in Germany and 8 month in Leningrad. I knocked on my mothers' door. The door had holes because it was very old. Mama looked through such a hole to see who is outside. I said: „Mama, it's me.“ She felt down and was unconscious. For six years she didn't know weather I was alive or not. Then my brothers and sisters came too. They were really happy to see me.

Life after war in Ukraine

Life after war when I came back from Leningrad, was very hard, but it was easy to find a job. One day I was on my way to Nikolayev looking for job. Me and a friend of mine were sitting in a tram. Suddenly we noticed that somebody had stolen our documents. We didn't know what to do so we asked the tram driver. He told us to go back to the tram station where we started and look for a man in a black coat standing around. She said that he will help us. So he did. Without any money he helped us.

Nevertheless I found a job in a factory in Nikolayev. After 2 years I moved to Konstantinovka with couple of my friends. So I worked on the factories of Konstantinovka, got married and my wife gave birth to 3 boys. One died in an accident. The other ones have many children and grandchildren now. They visit me and take care of me every day.

Attitude to war

War is a sorrow. Not only for me but for all the nation. The only way the world can be in peace is to make all the nations to change their attitudes. They have to remember how many people were killed, how much sorrow came with the war. Also in our times we have too many weapons. We have to get rid of them.

At the end I want to say that its possible to live in peace. Even if it's hard it's still possible and we just have to try.