Maria Il’inichna Bozhinskaja

Interview taken the 5^th April, 2013 by Alessia, Margherita, Agnese (Italy), Oksana (Ukraine).

My name is Maria Il’inichna Bozhinskaja. I was born 6 june 1925, in Vershina, 300 km from Konstantinovka. In 1932 I moved to Konstantinovka with my parents before the war because my family was considered Kulak. My dad own two horses and because of this he was arrested. He spent six months in the jail in Marjupol’ and then he did not want to come back. In Konstantinovka my dad was working in the glass factory and my mom used to work where it was possible. Our family suffered for hunger and when my mom would find job in a canteen she would bring home the left food. Before the war started I was able to finish my studies.

The industry where my dad used to work was moved to Ural’ mountains and he went there to work for one year. The production had changed from civil to military.

When the war started in 1941 my dad and my brother went to the army. My dad told me that when the Soviet Army was in Hungary, they once were passing through a grape field. It was summer and really hot, they were all thirsty. One of his fellow had temperature and took a single grape, for this officers from Soviet Army shot him.

We used to live near the airdrome when the Germans came, when they started throwing incendiary materials we decided to go back to our city, Vershina, and there we used to live quite well as we had a garden.

I found out the war was begun by radio announcements and in 1942 Germans came to occupy the city. In 1943 I was taken (I was 18 years old) to go to force labor to Germany with my friend Galina. Germans used to take young people, usually between 15 and 25 years old. We travelled together but then they sent us to different workplaces. We only knew that we were going to Germany for working and ended up in Schneidenburg (now Ostroznica, Poland), working in the in the fields. The work was not really hard and I was not alone there. There were other three girls and two war prisoners, all from Ukraine. We used to eat potatoes for lunch and dinner, every day. We received some money, so we could go to the market and buy some candies. I could even send letters to my parents. I worked there for more than two and a half years and we all the time were speaking in Russian between us. That’s why I never learnt German.

We found out the war was over because the war prisoners received a message. We were set free by the Soviet Army, but it was not easy moment as the soldiers would offend us for being working there. I met one soldier from Leningrad, he saved me. We used to chat and nobody was bothering us. On the way back to Ukraine I did not encountered any serious difficulty. We went by train and it was not a really long trip.

I don’t have generally bad memories from that times: As everywhere the Germans were sometimes nice to us, I even remember that some of them would give us some chocolate. The family where I used work was polite, even if we would not meet them often and nobody used to offend us. Before I left for going back to Ukraine, the lady gave me as present a nice dress.

After the end of the war I received two times a reparation for my forced work, even if I did not want them. The first time Germany paid me in marks, the second already in euro. I did not have any documents to prove that I spend more than two years working in Germany, then I wrote a letter to the German Archive. I got an answer back confirming my forced labor.

When I arrived to Konstantinovka in 1945 I found a job in a notary office, but I would not tell my story to everyone. Nobody was asking me where I had been, even if they knew I had been to Germany. It was forbidden to tell the story of Ostarbeiters before late 90s. I even spoke about this to my family really late, my daughter was already 20 years old.Who was taken as prisoner, was considered as enemy of the Country, that is why I was scared to tell my story of life in Germany.