The son of a Jewish mother and a Russian father, Mr. Parfenov says he was to be transported to the nearby Mykolaiv area and shot that day. In all, 14 members of his family – including his mother – were killed during the Holocaust in Ukraine. In the Black Sea port of Odessa, tens of thousands of Jewish residents were shot, burned alive and worked or starved to death – mostly by Romanian soldiers allied with Nazi Germany. But Yuri survived and later continued to serve in the Soviet army. And so, he says, it is particularly ironic that as half a Russian Holocaust survivor and former USSR tank captain, he faces death again, but this time at the hands of Vladimir Putin, who claims the invasion was aimed at to “de-nationalize” the country and save the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Ukraine from “genocide”. “Tell Putin: From whom are you freeing us?” Yuri says in Russian – his mother tongue – while trembling with rage. I have no words? He is a monster. We did not ask anyone to invade our land, to “liberate” us, to kill our children. “I want to say to Putin face to face, ‘You are a murderer.’ “I can not believe I lived to see a war that could escalate into World War III.” Yuri, a half-Russian Holocaust survivor and former captain of the Soviet Union, vows to stay and defend his homeland of Odessa (Bell True) Yuri is one of dozens of Holocaust survivors living in Odessa, which has a large Russian-speaking community and is steeped in a rich but painful Jewish history dating back to its founding by Catherine the Great in 1794. Sitting in the 100-year-old synagogue in downtown Chabad, Roman Shvarcman, 88, another Holocaust survivor who leads an association representing Jewish ex-prisoners of Nazi ghettos and concentration camps, bursts into tears. Last month he nearly died from Covid, to face the death threat once again, as his strategically located birthplace awaits an amphibious, ground and air strike from Russia. “When the air raid sirens scream, I try to get to the basement of my 10-story building and sit in the cold and pray for my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, to have a bright and happy youth,” he says. The independent. “We are a generation of people who lost their childhood. “I’m not worried about myself, I’m worried about the next generation.” This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Pictures) Yuri compares Putin to Adolf Hitler, saying Ukraine is facing a massacre again. “During World War II, the Nazis tried to kill all the Jews. And now the Russians are trying to kill every Ukrainian. Ukraine is my land. I am not going to leave this country, even if I am killed. I will not run. “ President Putin has argued that the goal of his invasion is to “de-nationalize” Ukraine and stop the “genocide” of its Russian-speaking population. Ukraine, a democratic country, has an extreme right-wing movement linked to armed groups including the nationalist militia Azov. But right-wing extremists have lost ground in recent elections and enjoy far less national support from similar parties in other parts of Europe. Mr Putin, meanwhile, came under fire for the actual destruction of Jewish monuments. Just a few days ago, the British ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, wrote on Twitter that a Holocaust memorial near the eastern city of Kharkiv had been damaged by the bombing. He posted a photo of the damaged Menorah monument at Drobitsky Yar, where 11,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis in a ravine. In the first week of the war, Ukraine reported that the Holocaust memorial at Babyn Yar in Kyiv – where more than 30,000 Jews were massacred by Nazi Germany – had also come close to being hit by Russian airstrikes. Odessa is afraid that it is the next one. The “Pearl of the Black Sea” is a key supply line and strategic gateway to the rest of Ukraine, and has long been targeted by the Russians, who are heavily bombarding, besieging and even occupying cities further east along the coast. Odessa has a long and difficult Jewish history. It was originally located in the Pale of Settlement, the part of the Russian Empire where Jews were allowed to live. The community suffered in the pogroms of the early 20th century, but by the 1930s about 200,000 Jews lived in the coastal city, making up about a third of the total population. The concrete blocks form a roadblock in front of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Odessa, March 17, 2022 (AFP / Getty) That changed with the advent of World War II. Only half of Odessa’s Jewish population managed to escape before the Romanian allies of Germany entered parts of Soviet territory and occupied the city. More than 25,000 Jews were killed in the ensuing attack and about 60,000 others were displaced, most of them lost in camps and ghettos. Jewish citizens were locked in warehouses, drenched in gasoline and burned alive. The stories told by Yuri and Roman about that time are creepy and in many ways feel terribly familiar to the current conflict. The Roman family, originally from Vinnytsia, a town 400 km (250 miles) north, escaped with a civilian escort, which was repeatedly shelled before being finally stopped by German troops and forced to return. His family was starving, he says. his sister was raped by Romanian soldiers. and his older brother was shot on a bombed-out bridge. The soldiers snatched Yuri from his mother’s arms and shot her as she tried to retrieve her child. We are a generation of people who lost their childhood. I do not worry about myself, I worry about the next generation Roman, Holocaust survivor and resident of Odessa These atrocities have recently disappeared. In 2018, a special commemorative event was attended by German and Romanian ambassadors to properly mark the forgotten 1941-42 massacres in Odessa, from which Yuri and Roman survived. But in recent years there has also been something of a renaissance for the community, says Rabbi Avraham Wolff, the chief rabbi of Odessa and southern Ukraine, who runs the Chabad synagogue there. Before the last invasion, according to Rabbi Wolff, 35,000 Jews were among the city’s millions. His community has two Jewish kindergartens, two schools, two orphanages, a Jewish university and a nursing home for 50 Holocaust survivors: an extensive network, the rabbi says, means he felt safer in every part of the world. southern Ukraine. Abraham Wolf, chief rabbi of Odessa and southern Ukraine, fears war will destroy Jewish community (Bell True) “I wish every rabbi in the world had the same freedom that I enjoy here. “We have 11 buildings in this city, everything we need is provided by the city”, he says from his office next to the synagogue. “There are only two countries in the world where the prime minister and the president were once both Jews – this is Israel and Ukraine,” he said, referring to Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky and former Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. “But [the idea that] Do I need someone to set me free? It’s fantastic[al] to talk about Nazism here. “It has nothing to do with the real reality on the ground.” Rabbi Wolff says his biggest concern right now is actually dismantling the community he has worked so hard to build. He and his volunteer groups have been organizing the evacuation of nearly 6,000 Jews and non-residents of Odessa to neighboring countries since the start of the war. It also evacuated 120 children from its orphanages in Germany, as well as several hundred other women and children from the city, despite the fact that most did not have travel documents. He can not move the 50 Holocaust survivors to the nursing home he runs, as they are very old and weak and are unlikely to survive the trip out of Ukraine. All he can do is stock up on supplies such as canned food, pasta and rice and pay the caregivers three months’ salary in advance to look after them. They pray that the worst does not happen. The Roman stands in the synagogue of Chabad, whose rabbi has helped evacuate thousands of civilians from Odessa (Bell True) “It’s very painful what is happening to the Jewish community here. In recent years we have gathered 35,000 people – 35,000 puzzle pieces – into one big picture. We built institutions, from kindergartens to nursing homes, from orphanages to a Jewish university. “We made this picture and then we put it in a frame and put it on the wall. But now it is falling. Thirty-five thousand pieces of a puzzle scattered in Ukraine, Moldova, Germany and Israel. “It’s broken,” added Rabbi Wolf. “We are still here, we work, but it is not the same.” For Yuri and Roman, their focus is on their children and grandchildren and their protection from the horror with which they grew up. They both swear to stay in the city no matter what. “I can not hold a rifle, I am not a fighter and I am very big, but my weapon is my words against this Russian fascism. “It’s my weapon to fight,” Roman says in tears. Yuri, a few years younger, says he is ready to join the territorial defense. “If necessary, I’m ready to defend the city with a gun,” he says, as the afternoon sun glides beneath a Holocaust memorial near his home. “We are not going anywhere. We will fight until our dying breath “. With additional report by Valentine Strakovsky
