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

“DID GOD WATCH THIS? AND WHAT DID HE THINK?…”

Yura Karpovich EIGHT YEARS OLD. NOW A DRIVER.

I saw what shouldn’t be seen…What a man shouldn’t see. And I was little…

I saw a soldier who was running and seemed to stumble. He fell. For a long time he clawed at the ground, he clung to it…

I saw how they drove our prisoners of war through our village. In long columns. In torn and burned greatcoats. Where they stayed overnight, the bark was gnawed off the trees. Instead of food, they threw them a dead horse. The men tore it to pieces.

I saw a German train go off the rails and burn up during the night, and in the morning they laid all those who worked for the railroad on the tracks and drove a locomotive over them…

I saw how they harnessed people to a carriage. They had yellow stars on their backs. They drove them with whips. They rode along merrily.

I saw how they knocked children from their mother’s arms with bayonets. And threw them into the fire. Into a well…Our turn, mama’s and mine, didn’t come…

I saw my neighbor’s dog crying. He sat in the ashes of our neighbor’s house. Alone. He had an old man’s eyes…

And I was little…

I grew up with this…I grew up gloomy and mistrustful, I have a difficult character. When someone cries, I don’t feel sorry; on the contrary, I feel better, because I myself don’t know how to cry. I’ve been married twice, and twice my wife has left me. No one could stand me for long. It’s hard to love me. I know it…I know it myself…

Many years have passed…Now I want to ask: Did God watch this? And what did He think?