Shkumat Nina Timofeevna

9 August 2010 in her living room.

Interviewers: Konstantin, Antonida, Novocelova, Katrin Schubert, Ina Alexandra Reshetelovkiy

I , Shkumat Nina Tinofeevna, was born on 28 February 1924 in the Dnepropetrovski region in the village of Novoe Pole (New Field).

I came to Konstantinovka with my parents in 1932. My father worked in a chemical factory as work manager and taught mechanics and my mother was a housewife. I had an older brother; he died at the front.

 I studied 10 years at school and then went on to medical college.

When I was studying in 1941 in fourth year of the medical assistant school they sent me a summons  for the army. My father did not let me go. On 29^th October 1941 the Germans came to the town, from the Druzhkovki side I saw them because our house was next to the main street of the town. There were no soldiers in town. The first wave of Germans entered the town slowly, on horseback, after them followed the motorised group. They put up Germans in our house, sometimes they gave us food, on the whole they treated us well.

Because my father was a communist, the Polizei (German police) arrested him. Mama collected all valuables and bribed one of the policemen and we fled from Konstantinovka to the village my father came from, Novoe Polye.

In winter 1942 they started to round up young people in our village to work in Germany. At night the Germans came to our house and took me away. They loaded us onto a troop train that took us to Germany.

First I was taken to Rostock. At the collection centre my employer Werner took me to his farm. Werner had a wife, Magda, and three sons. The eldest son died on the Russian front. Magda beat me for every offence; she was very cruel. They had a big farm, 24 cows, around 100 hens, horses etc.

I lived three years on their farm. Every morning I got up at 4 in the morning and worked until late at night. I slept in the attic in a small room, was dressed in rags and received 3 Mark per month for my work. I had practically no contact with the locals.

In the spring of 1945 the Russian soldiers came and liberated me. I could not return to my home straight away. Because I had medical training they sent me to work in a Soviet hospital in Germany. I looked after the injured soldiers and sick Germans. In that area typhus was wide spread and there were a lot of sick among the local population. I worked in the hospital until 1946. When they disbanded the army I went back to Dnepropetrovsk. There I found my parents and we returned to Konstantinovka as my father worked as engineer in the chemical factory. After the war the town was practically destroyed.

For a long time I could not work as a medical assistant because I ha  been a prisoner. The attitude of the Soviet power to those people who had been prisoner was bad. Therefore I found a job in the canteen and worked there until my retirement. Before long I got married to a friend of my brother and we stayed together for 62 years. I had two sons, my husband worked in the brick factory “Red October”. Two years ago my husband died. Now I live in my house together with my son and his family.