Tat'jana Boldyreva (Protalinskaja)
TANJA FROM OUR HOUSE
We lived near the cable factory at Luk'janovka in the Fedorovskaja backstreet , 4, in a communal apartment.
On the 22th of June announced that the war began. My father was carried to the front on the 24th of June. Our neighbor Kushnirovich Izja was also carried to the war. Sema, 17 years old boy, was taken to the youth squad, and their mom, with someone of the members of their family went to the evacuation. Tanja Kushnirovich with her three-month daughter Nelochka stayed in Kyiv. Our family consisted of my mother, my grandmother - my father's mother, and my sister Katja. Tanja with Nelochka were under the care of my mom and granny. I loved little children, that is why I liked to play with Nelochka. We went to the passageway with Tanja and her baby, to the queue for molasses from which granny cooked jam from “Paradise apples”. With joy we dragged apples by the tails from bowls and drank tea.
On the 19th of September Kyiv was occupied by Germans. Kreshchatik was exploded and burned. Ash and burned papers were driven by the wind into our yard. On the fences appeared posters, which obliged all Jews of Kyiv gather near Lukjanivskij cemetery with things and valuables for sending to Palestine.
Tanya was a little like a Jew. Mother tried to persuade her to go with the child to her mother's sister, to Zhitomir. Tanja could explain there, that her documents were burned on Khreschatyk, where she allegedly lived. But Tanja was relentless: "Please, stop, Lida. Which Zhitomir? We will be taken away to Palestine."
Mom and Tanya bundled warm things. Granny baked biscuits for the road. Neither we nor she had not any jewels. Grandma had a small pocket watch, which were given to her at a young age. They did not go, but were in a gold case. Granny gave them to Tanja, because she hoped, that Tanja could to sell them at a difficult moment. Mom sewed the watch in Tanja’s bra.
All our neighbors accompanied her, and my mother went to the gathering place together with Tanja. She even did not suppose, what would be happen next. Tanya left us with her photo that day.
Mother returned home pale, trembling, and said that she got out of the cordon of policemen and German Shepherds with miracle.
It became clear that there is not so, as it was written in the recruiting posters. It took probably a month. Late in the evening, Thanja’s husband Izja knocked our door. He was in the defense of Kyiv, was in a blockading cordon and miraculously got us. People in the villages helped to change his uniform for civilian clothes. He was heavily scrubby and full of lices. Mom and our neighbor uncle Kostja began to process him. Mom found Dad's warm underwear, uncle Kostja found outwear. His dirty clothes was burned in the stove. Uncle Kostja trimmed and shaved him. Also we fed him up and sent to sleep in our shed. Izja was asked to go into villages, where it was easier to survive. We were close to Lukianivskij cemetery, where were a lot of Germans, who controlled our district.
Izja smoked in the evening and the light of cigarette shines through the cracks of the shed. Opposite the shed , in the basement of our house, lived informant Rebro. Mom and uncle Kostja feared, that he could snitch on us. Mom bundled crumbs for Izja and early in the morning, when it was still dark, Mom and uncle Kostja accompanied Izja. Near our house was a ravine, which was crossing Baggoutovskaja street and Kmitov Yar. Izja did not come any more after he get known about his family fate. We did not know about his fate , we did not know if he is alive.
In few days the Germans came. They asked " Is here a Jew?" They snooped around the apartment, looked in the closet, under the bed. Mom and grandma thought: this is the end. It turned out that the Germans snooped around all apartments. Now there is no mommy or granny or uncle Kostja and his family.
I realized that I could hand in the photographs and my memories to the Foundation "Remembrance of Babyn Yar." If someone is looking for their loved ones, they, of course, appeal to you.
Tanja’s surname is Kushnirovich - maiden. But unfortunately I do not know her married name.