AT: When they came to us to dekulakize (dispossess) us, it was our fellow villagers – cousins, friends. My father knew them all. We had a lot of chairs, because my mother’s sister, who lived close to us, made chairs and tables out of willows and took them to sell in Zaporizhzhia. And when they were returning home, they would give us some of what they didn’t sell. We always put them in the attic. When they came to dispossess us, they took all the chairs and put them on the yard, and sat down on them. One man, my father’s friend, said to him "Well, Andriy Hryhorovych, what do you think about us taking all this?" My father answered, "It’s not mine." The man said, "What do you mean? It’s yours." And my father answered, "Then why are you taking it?" And his friend didn’t know what to say. They took everything.

We went to Silnenikova, about 3 km away, to try to buy bread. My mother joined the bread line, and I saw that there were children, the same age as me, begging for bread from the people coming out of the store. They gave bread by the kilo and if the loaf weighed a little less, they gave a small piece to make the weight. People would give these small pieces to the children. I asked my mother if I could go and ask people for this bread, and my mother let me. I went and hid all the pieces I could get in my pocket. My mother got a kilo of bread, which was the most you could get. We came home, and the next day, my mother and father went to work, and we children stayed home, all six of us. I thought, maybe I’ll go ask for some more bread. I went to a nearby house, about 2 or 3 km, near Silnenkova, and asked the woman to give me a piece of bread, because I was hungry. There were two children in the house, and she said, "Child, I don’t have anything." But she gave me a small boiled potato. I put that potato in my pocket and went on to the next house. At the second house the woman gave me a bit of soup, which I ate. All day I walked around begging for food. I filled my pockets. Some people gave a bit of boiled corn, whatever people had. Most had their own small children. Usually it was women whose husbands worked in the factories in Silnenkova, so they still got a bit of food.

INTERVIEWER – The people [who gave you food] lived in the city?

AT: Yes, in the city.

Aleksandra Tyshchenko (nee Senyk)

Date of birth: 6 September 1925

Place of birth: Orlyanske village, Zaporizhzhia oblast

Witnessed Famine in: Orlyanske village, Zaporizhzhia oblast

Arrived in Canada: 1948

Current residence: London, Ontario

Date and place of interview:  16 December 2008, London, Ontario

Excerpt From Full Interview