Amongthe millions of Ukrainianswho have fled the countryamid Russia’s invasionare some to whom the situation feels all-too-familiar: Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, who are explaining in interviews how the situation has resurfaced fears which long went “hidden.”
Speaking to the Associated Press in a story published Monday, 83-year-old Tatyana Zhuravliova said the recent attacks on Ukrainerecalled Nazi air attackson her hometown of Odesa when she was a child.
“My whole body was shaking, and those fears crept up again through my entire body — fears which I didn’t even know were still hidden inside me,” Zhuravliova told the AP.
No longer young enough to run to safety, the retired doctor told the outlet that she “just stayed inside my apartment and prayed that the bombs would not kill me” when Russia’s invasion began.
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One of those survivors, 80-year-old Valeriy Zharkovska, tried in vain to leave his hometown of Kharkiv via train, only to faint amid the chaos and crush of others trying to do exactly the same.
Zharkovska, his daughter and his granddaughter have since been evacuated from the war-torn country — first transport to Kyiv, and eventually into Poland — with help from the nonprofit organization Safebow.
Speaking to ABC News, his daughter Inna said the situation has been “unbearable.”
“I understand how difficult it is for him,” Inna told ABC News. “It’s his motherland, and everything he loves is connected with it.”
“No one can imagine the nightmare survivors have lived through during the Holocaust,” Mahlo told the AP. “Now they need to evacuate again — their security, all things familiar are again being stripped from them and they are forced to live with uncertainty and fear.”
Not every survivor has escaped:96-year-old Boris Romantschenko, who lived through four Nazi concentration camps, was killed earlier this month when Russians shelled his apartment building in the city of Kharkiv, according to the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
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With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyycalled for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
