Re: [Cz-L] Ukraine KGB Records

I am absolutely speechless and so relieved to read this!

 When we went to the SBU in Czernowitz which is where they kept these kinds
of records, they gave us such a runaround and as I mentioned we eventually
paid a lot of money for documents that told the story of my grandfather's
arrest that ultimately sent him to Siberia. The files had been sitting there
all these years--depositions of people who were interviewed by the Soviets
as well as 2 or 3 interrogations of my grandfather. In the file there were
lists of items confiscated from their apartment and their meager possessions
including my grandmother's clothes that she petition to be returned. But
they would never tell me where he went to prison and where he died--only the
date of his death which was one year before Stalin died. He had been
deported to Siberia in 1945 after being in jail in Czernowitz for one year.
My mother and grandmother never knew that he was still alive and left
Czernowitz for Israel. They were told by the Red Cross that he was dead.

We also said Kadish as a family because we eventually found out the date of
his death. It took so many years to find out when he died. And still they
held on to information as if it would mean anything to anyone except my
grandfather's family. The officials acted as if they were still in the NKGB
creating an extremely scarey situation for us in what was formerly a
deposition room in the KGB building in Czernowitz. Zoya and our driver would
not step even step foot in the building from fears leftover from Soviet
rule.

The documents revealed a familiar story of trumped up charges that took him
away from his family after having survived the entire war.

I know the feeling of uncovering events that had been kept secret for almost
70 years and how much closure it brought to my mother and the rest of us.

I was told that a government change occurred last January in the Ukraine and
that things would change and I guess this is the result.

Let's hope it doesn't take too long to put together the evidence for all to
gain access to such important records.

Now all they have to do is admit to it all and give back everything they
stole from us!!!!!

Ilana

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 4:11 PM, <krwphoto_at_aol.com> wrote:

>
> Hi Mimi,
>
> Thanks for sending that
> for those who are interested
> ...
>
>
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/new-life-from-old-archives-1.34997
1
>
> -Kevin Wexler

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