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I'd like to tell the story about my grandmother's family who were captured in Russia during the war and sent to a labour camp in Germany. When my grandmother Matrjona and her two little sons, Eduard and Valerij, were taken prisoner, my grandmother was about four months pregnant. It was twice as hard for Russian people to survive the camps, because Stalin was saying, ‘We have no captives abroad.’ So, while citizens from other European countries received parcels and other help from their relatives, Russians did not.

Grandmother told us that many people pitied the Russians and shared some of their food with them, but that food was almost nothing, and she had to go begging with other captives to local people to feed her two little sons. Some of the locals were friendly and gave something, but others were stony faced, and she knew in advance that they wouldn’t give anything. There was also a river or a pond near by, and her sons went there to catch frogs and exchange them with the French for food.

Grandmother remembered that the only ones who were very hostile and hated them were Polish people — because they blamed Russia and Stalin for the war. I personally don't understand this: you can blame a country and its leader, but why are its people guilty?

Grandmother gave birth to a baby boy called Leonid, but as she had no milk or food the boy died. Only mothers can understand what it is like to lose a baby. There were of course diseases in the camp, and she also suffered from scurvy.

When American soldiers came to free them they offered immigration to the USA, but grandmother refused. She was surprised when she learnt that her husband, my grandfather, had also been captured, and had been working in a camp nearby. The family returned to Russia.

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