For Us, the War Ends
W e knew the war was going badly for the Germans. There were fewer and fewer attacks or searches for Jews in the woods. My uncle had contacts with people in the villages. One day he brought us the news, “The Russians just occupied Ludvipol and they are on the way to Rovno. They’ve already passed us.” How was it that I survived? I think it was just luck. Or maybe, if there is a God, it was meant to be. I was not smarter than the others. It just happened this way. Every human being’s instinct is to want to live and to do everything possible to stay alive. I did whatever I could. I had help from my cousins, uncle, and aunt; they played a great part in my survival. Without them, I would never have made it through that period when I was left behind in the forest. After liberation by the Russian army on January 10, 1944, we moved out of the woods into a village called Matchulanka, about twelve kilometers from Ludvipol. Prior to the war, Ludvipol was the county seat, where the government administered the villages in the area. Before the Germans retreated, they burned Ludvipol to the ground, so the Russian government had to find another place for the county seat. They established a provisional township in Matchulanka, not far from where we had been hiding, while they continued to fight to the west, and my uncle went there after a few weeks to find us a place to live. Many other survivors from Ludvipol also settled in Matchulanka. My uncle rented part of a house from a farmer’s wife in Matchulanka. We used the living room, and the woman lived in the kitchen with her two children and slept on top of the big brick oven. Although security continued to be a major problem, we
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