大象传媒

Kateryna's story is part of a collection recorded for a reminiscence project to celebrate the history of the Ukrainian community in Gloucester, and contributed to the 大象传媒 People's War with permission.

I was born in Serdnyky, in the Lviv region of Ukraine. I had three brothers and three sisters. My family were farming people and I helped with the work. I remember that it was hard work. I would spend half a day at school and half a day looking after the cows. Some days I would spend from 8 until 12 working and then go to school for the afternoon.

The Germans took me on 10th November 1942. Three policemen came to arrest me. I was eighteen years old. I was the only one at home that day. I spent 48 hours in prison. I was then taken to the train station and transported to Lviv were I spent a week under secure guard. Later I was then moved by cattle train, with many others, to Germany.

I was chosen as one of fourteen girls to work on a pig farm. There were 1,500 pigs on the farm and my job was to feed them and clean them out.

When I wasn't with the pigs I worked in the road. I had no days off - no Christmas and no Easter.

One month after arriving at the pig farm I cut my hand on a wheelbarrow and it became infected and swelled with poison. I had to have my hand cut to drain the poison. I still have the scars today.

I slept in the roof space above the pigs. This was always infested with rats as they were attracted by the pig food. I wore a uniform of trousers, jacket and wellington boots. The uniform had a red mark on the sleeve and the back.

I met my husband in 1944, he worked 2km away and in May 1945, whilst still in Germany, I married and had a baby boy.

In 1947 we came to England and the baby died. We lived in Malvern for one month where I had a private job on a farm. I worked from Monday to Friday for 10 shillings and dinner each day.

My husband refused a job in Coventry because he wanted to do coal mining but was not well enough to be taken on. We moved to Bishop's Cleeve where I took a cleaning job. My husband worked on a farm at Tewkesbury.

We then moved to Brockworth in Gloucester and in 1948 my son, John, was born. At this time I was staying with a friend. My husband found a stable, he attached a door to make it habitable, and we lived there for a year.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.