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

“THE CHICKS HAD JUST HATCHED…I WAS AFRAID THEY’D BE KILLED…”

Alyosha Krivoshey FOUR YEARS OLD. NOW A RAILROADMAN.

My memory…The only one…The chicks had just hatched. Small and yellow, they ran around the floor, came to my hands. During the bombing, my grandmother gathered them on a sieve.

“How about that: war—and chicks.”

I was afraid the chicks would be killed. I still remember how I cried because of that fear. Bombing…Everybody ran to hide in the cellar, but I wouldn’t leave the house. I was holding the chicks…Grandmother took the sieve with us, then I went. I went and counted: one chick, two, three…There were five of them…

I counted the bombs. One fell, two…seven…

That’s how I learned to count…