Very important for the survival in a foreign country was the support and help of friends, opportunities for emotional communication. Therefore, photographs with friends who shared the hardships and sufferings in a foreign country are so valuable in family archives. “Let our friendship live and grow like a golden blue cornflower in the grass” – Vira Pavlenko wrote this poem to Martha Redko from Sobicheve village in memory of the joint “work at a coke mine and camp life in one room”.
Postcards from Ostarbeiters to Ukraine show that hard work was not the main challenge. Longing for home caused more suffering. It was letters from relatives and friends that helped keep one’s spirit, keep in touch with family, and describe their lives. Ostarbeiters got official permission to correspond in November 1942. Only postcards were allowed, twice a month in each direction, and parcels weighing 250 grams, only from Ukraine to Germany. In 1943, special three-language postpaid postcards were introduced. Letters from Ostarbeiters were censured first at the camp, then in a special center in Berlin. Therefore, they could not write much about their real life.
Most authors wrote to their families about how important it was for them to receive letters from home.
Natalia Babak from the village of Voronizh conveys the emotions overwhelming her after receiving a letter, “My dear sister Lena! I received your postcard with joy and read with tears. Oh sister, think how hard it is without family.”
Vira Nedbayevska reproached sister Olga, “Greetings from Germany to your dear Ukraine from your sisters. I haven’t received anything from you for three months. What this silence means, I do not know… ”
Vasily Tarasenko wrote to his parents and his wife in the village of Chapliyivka, Shostka district, that he could not send them frequent letters. “I can only send two postcards a month, so tell father not to get offended. Father, if you are allowed to send parcels, then send cereals, tobacco, parcels like that, and crackers. Well, I will now expect a parcel.”
One of the biggest problems in camps was famine and the inability to buy extra food. Yevdokia Antoshchenko wrote about this to her parents in Shostka, “We are allowed to go for walks on Sundays from 12 to 8 pm. There are no markets here like at home, everything is given out by rations. Every 5 days, we get 1.4 kg of bread, twice a week we get 50 grams of margarine and 25 grams of sausage, twice a day we get different kinds of soup”.
Food was scanty and monotonous; it was impossible to taste the seasonal fruits and vegetables so common for life at home. “Senya, for the [Feast of Transfiguration] we ate apples: two were cut down for eight people” (Galina Pankratova wrote to her relatives in the village of Klyshki. 1943).
- Anastasia Pylypenko (Seryakova), born in 1918 in the village of Sobichevo. Photo made in 1943 in Saarbrücken, Germany.
- Signature on the back photo by A Pylypenko
- Letter from Ostarbeiter Vasyl Tarasenko from the Steyerberg camp to his parents and wife in the village of Chapliyivka, Shostka district. 1943
- Letter from Ostarbeiter Vasyl Tarasenko 1943. I can only send two postcards a month, so tell father not to get offended. Father, if you are allowed to send parcels, then send cereals, tobacco, parcels like that, and crackers. Well, I will now expect a parcel.
- Raisa Davidova. Photo made in Güssen, 1945 Born in Shostka in 1925. Lost her parents early, grew up an orphan. In June 1942, was deported to work in Güssen, Germany. Worked at the powder factory of Dynamite Cologne AG.
- Letter from an Ostarbeiter Vira Nedbayevska: Greetings from Germany to our dear Ukraine 20 / VII-43 from your sisters. I haven’t received anything from you in three months. What this silence means, I don’t know…
- Letter from the Ostarbeiter Vira Nedbaeyevska from Stayerberg camp to sister in the city Shostka
- Лист остарбайтерки Letter from the Ostarbeiter Natalia Babak: Dear Lena, describe all the news to me in detail, your young life and the news of Voronizh. My dear sister Lena! I received your postcard with joy and read with tears. Oh sister, think how hard it is without a family.
- Letter from Ostarbeiter Vasyl Onoprienko from the Steyerberg camp to relatives in the village of Chapliyivka, Shostka district. 1943
- Letter from Ostarbeiter Vasyl Onoprienko 1943 You write that you have sent a parcel. Thank you very much, but I did not receive it yet – when I receive it, I will write to you. Relatively to last year, I live much better, but what is further I do not know. For some time, I have to go to the landlord to work (as a farm laborer). That’s how we live.
- Letter from Ostarbeiter Victor Dovgulya from the Steyerberg camp to his uncle and aunt in Chapliyivka village. 1943.
- Uncle, please, if you can, send tobacco or tell my dad to send me a parcel of lard.
- Praskovia Sherskiuk. Photo 1950 Born in 1924 in the village of Gorbovo, Novgorod-Seversky district. In June 1942, was deported to work in Germany. Worked in the village of Dyurverden at the Eibia GmbH powder factory. After the war, worked as a nurse in Shostka District Hospital No. 2.
- Letter from Yevdokia Antoshchenko from Apolonsdorf to her parents in Shostka 1943.
- Letter from Yevdokia Antoshchenko: We are allowed to go for walks on Sundays from 12 to 8 pm. There are no markets here like at home, everything is given out by rations. Every 5 days, we get 1.4 kg of bread, twice a week we get 50 grams of margarine and 25 grams of sausage, twice a day we get different kinds of soup.
- Letter from Yevdokia Antoshchenko from Apolonsdorf to her parents in Shostka 1943.
- Letter from Galyna Pankratova, Osterbeiter from Aylenburg, to her family in the village of Klyshky. 1943
- Letter from Galyna Pankratova: I, thank God, get by ok, not like last year. This year we live a little better, thank God. I’m so bored without you, my dear brothers. Sen’ka, for the [Feast of Transfiguration] we ate apples: two were cut down for eight people. And as many cucumbers. We get paid 40 DM a month and are allowed to the city on Sundays for a walk.
- Valentina Worflik (Kulikova), 1924, Shostka. Photo In June 1942, she was deported to work in Magdeburg. After the war, she returned to Shostka. As a returnee, she could not be hired to work at the plant, so she worked at logging. Hard work undermined her health.
- Marfa Redko (right) and her friend Vira Pavlenko. Photo made in Saarbrücken, 1944 Marfa was born in 1919 in the village of Sobichevo. Graduated from the Glukhiv Teachers School right before the war. In August 1942, was deported to work in Germany. Worked at a steel plant in Saarbrücken. After the war, returned to her home village and worked as a teacher at the Sobychevo school.
- Ganna Titova (Mesiatz) with her friend Lyuba. Photo, Berlin, 1944. Born in 1926 in the village of Semenivka, Chernihiv region. Later the family moved to Shostka. Became an orphan and lived in various families in Svesa, Yampil district. From here, was deported to Germany in 1942. After the liberation in 1945. worked on the dismantling of equipment of German enterprises, then was sent to Zhdanov (Mariupol). Returned to Shostka in the 1960s.
- Efrosinia Antoshchenko (seated to the right). Photo made in Shostka, 1928 Born in 1912 in the village of Lokotki (now Shostka). After graduation, worked at Powder Plant No. 9. In 1942, was deported to work in Germany and worked in a village near Berlin.
- Letter from Ostarbeiter Vasyl Tarasenko from the Steyerberg camp to his parents and wife in the village of Chapliyivka, Shostka district. 1943
- Letter from Ostarbeiter Vasyl Tarasenko: 1943 I can only send two postcards a month, so tell father not to get offended. Father, if you are allowed to send parcels, then send cereals, tobacco, parcels like that, and crackers. Well, I will now expect a parcel.
- Letter from an Ostarbeiter Vira Nedbayevska from Stayerberg camp to sister Paraskoviya Antoshko in the city Shostka. 1943.
- Letter from an Ostarbeiter Vira Nedbayevska: Vera our lives in Bauer (German farmer), her is very good. She live 2 kilometers from us, we go to her, and she to us. She will be there 3 weeks, and then back.