Last Witnesses : An Oral History of the Children of World War II

“GRANDPA WAS BURIED UNDER THE WINDOW…”

Varya Vyrko EIGHT YEARS OLD. NOW A WEAVER.

I remember winter, cold winter. In winter our grandfather was killed.

They killed him in our courtyard. By the gate.

We buried him under our window…

We weren’t allowed to bury him in the cemetery, because he had hit a German. Polizei stood by our gate and didn’t let anyone come to us. Neither relatives nor neighbors. Mama and grandma themselves knocked together a coffin out of some boxes. They themselves washed grandpa, though relatives are not supposed to wash the body. It should be done by strangers. That’s our custom. I remember this being discussed at home…They lifted the coffin. Carried it to the gate…The polizei shouted, “Turn back! Or else we’ll shoot you all! Bury him in your kitchen garden like a dog.”

And so for three days…They go to the gate, and are sent back. Driven back…

On the third day grandma began to pick at the ground under the window…It was minus forty outside, grandma remembered all her life that it was minus forty. It’s very difficult to bury a man when it’s so cold. I was seven then, no, probably, already eight, and I helped her. Mama pulled me out of the hole, in tears.

There…in the place where grandpa was buried, an apple tree grew. It stands there instead of a cross. It’s already old…