Murder story of Novaya Ushitsa Jews in the Trikhov Forest

I was born in January 1942 in the Novaya Ushitsa ghetto … . My parents were Jews. My father – Boris … and my mother – Bronislava… . I had an older brother (no one knows his name). When the war broke out, my father was mobilized and sent to the front. He was a doctor. My mother was pregnant with me and wanted to be evacuated, but she didn't have enough time. Then the German occupiers came and a ghetto was set up where my mother gave birth to me. You can imagine her condition. There was no water in the ghetto. … Thus, we lived, or more precisely, suffered until August 20, 1942. This day was recalled in Novaya Ushitsa as "the black day." The Germans and [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen ordered all the Jews to gather, supposedly in order to be sent to Palestine. They were ordered to take no posssessions, except gold items and other valuables. The column of old people, women. and children stretched for a kilometer. … When this column turned toward the Trikhov Forest, the people realized they were going their last way. My mother, without being noticed by the guards, put me under a [nearby] bush. Then she, together with my brother and the other Jews from Novaya Ushitsa, were shot to death. I was picked up immediately by some Ukrainians, who hid me. Yelena Ivanovna, who was born in 1911 and Vasilyi Vasilyevich, who was born in 1907 – my adoptive parents – took me in. They weren’t afraid of being shot to death for saving the life of a Jewish child. No one betrayed them. … I was raised in this Ukrainian family and graduated from the State University of Chernovtsy, I worked as a teacher for 42 years. I discovered that I was Jewish only when I was 58 years old. Jews whom I knew told me this.