IS: I was often hungry. I’ll tell you about one episode, how I asked my grandmother for bread. Later on I found out that my grandmother had 5 golden rubles and she bought some bread in a TORGSYN . She brought it home and cut it up, and that bread was so delicious, and I asked for some more. My grandmother said, later, in the evening I’ll give you some more. I said, "Grandma, give me some bread, or I’ll go and break the windows." I went outside and took a stick and was going to break the windows. They chased me away, and I went to wait for the evening, when grandmother was supposed to give me some more bread. In those years, everyone was always hungry, because there wasn’t enough to eat. Some people stripped tree bark and added it to flour. We had a few potatoes, so when hungry people came begging for food, my mother would give them some.

INTERVIEWER – Your mother gave food [to other people]?

IS: She did.

Ivan Shevchenko

Date of birth: 16 June 1927

Place of birth: Oshybki village, Kyiv oblast

Witnessed Famine in: Oshybki village, Kyiv oblast

Arrived in Canada: 1953

Current residence: London, Ontario

Date and place of interview:  17 December 2008, London, Ontario

Excerpt From Full Interview