In 1941, the Jewish Raisa Valiushkevich (98) fled her homeland Ukraine to avoid the Nazis. Now, more than eighty years later, history repeats itself in mirror image and Valiushkevich flees to Germany.
Valiushkevich tells Reuters news agency that it feels crazy to be taken care of in the country that once forced her to flee. Nevertheless, she says she is grateful. “I have found a second homeland in Germany and I feel good here,” says the 98-year-old from a Jewish nursing home in Frankfurt.
In 1941, Valiushkevich, along with her parents and sister, fled Ukraine after Nazi Germany invaded the country. She eventually ended up in Kazakhstan on foot and by train, just like Ukraine was part of the then Soviet Union. In the three years that they occupied Ukraine, the Nazis murdered almost the entire Jewish population.
On the run from Russian bombs
Now, more than eighty years later, Valiushkevich had to flee from the Russians. Bombs fell on her residential area in Kiev. Due to her walking difficulties, Valiushkevich was unable to reach the bunkers in time when the air raid siren went off. So she gratefully accepted the offer of a Jewish-American refugee organization to help her out of Ukraine. Via Poland she eventually ended up in Frankfurt, Germany.
More than 50 Holocaust survivors have been evacuated from Ukraine by aid organizations, according to Reuters. Many of them end up in Germany, where there is a special reception policy for Ukrainian Jews. They can get German citizenship faster.
That Valiushkevich and other Holocaust survivors have to flee from Russian bombs is especially wry in light of Putin’s motivation to go to war. At the beginning of the invasion, the Russian president said he wanted to “denazify” Ukraine. Putin also systematically labels the political leadership of Ukraine as Nazis. This while the Ukrainian president Zelensky is of Jewish descent.
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