In 2009, AHEYM interviewed a small group of people in Tul'chyn, Ukraine. Kolodienko, Tolkovitz, and Katsman discussed the history of and conditions in the Pechera concentration camp. They also recalled their student lives in a Jewish school in Tul'chyn before the war and Jewish life during and after the war.
Khaye Katsman, nee Chechelniker, was born in 1931 in Tul'chyn and has spent her whole life in Tul'chyn. Her father Haim was born in 1901 and was a brush maker. Her mother was born in 1904. She worked as a tailor for 39 years.
Nisen Kolodienko was born in Tomashpol' in 1927 and was educated in a Jewish school as was his wife Pesia Kolodienko, born in 1927. Nisen lost his father in 1933 during the Great Hunger. Nisen spent the war in the Tomashpol' ghetto with five siblings but was able to escape. He joined the Red Army in 1944 and served in Germany for five years from 1944 to 1949 and then for two years in the Baltic.
Photographer: Artur Frątczak |
