The Sun is Rising Over Kyiv on the 1172nd Day of the Full-Scale Invasion. “My Ukrainian grandma was an Ostarbeiter, and I knew nothing about it.”

by Ukrainer_UA

10 comments

  1. Lisa Weeda is a writer and curator of literary programs and art projects of Dutch-Ukrainian origin. Her grandmother, Oleksandra, originally from Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast, was deported by the Nazis as an Ostarbeiter – forced worker – to the Griesheim am Main factory in Western Germany during the Second World War. After the war, Lisa’s grandmother married a Dutchman and moved to his homeland.

    In 2021, Lisa debuted with her novel “Oleksandra”, named after her grandmother. Through family history, the author immerses Western readers in the tragic events of Ukrainian history: the Holodomor, Soviet collectivisation, and the war raging in the East of Ukraine since 2014.

    In July 2024, Lisa’s grandmother, Oleksandra, passed away peacefully. Her family was by her side.

    Read the full article [on our website.](https://www.ukrainer.net/en/my-grandma-was-an-ostarbeiter-an-interview-with-writer-lisa-weeda/)

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  2. Thank you so much for putting your heart into this beautiful work. 🇺🇦🫶🏻

  5. One thing that’s so upsetting about the 2023- invasion is that everyone in the world knows (with photos, video, and live testimony) what is happening every day, to kill, destroy, torture, and kidnap Ukrainian people. And we have ways and means, financial and military and political, to do so much more to stop Russia. And still, history is repeating itself. We humans are shameful. All the western leaders considering compromising with Putin are shameful.

  6. My ex girlfriend’s grandma told me me ones a story about her self as a ostarbeiter, she lives in what was then Russia what part in don’t know. She tolt me about hiding, betrayal, on the run, on transport. in the work kamps olmost dying, meeting her husband who she married later on. She never got back to Russia they treated her for working in kamp and helping the Germany, she would be executeert. Zo she was going with a Dutch man to the Netherlands. Where she got married. And started a family in the Netherlands. The story she told me that day was like the Sindler’s list, the pianist combined. You could easily make 3 movies out of that story. I heard days later from her daughter she never tolkt about it that I was the first person she told it al. I try to tell the story around so the young generation will know. I never forget that moment.
    Sorry for the bad English.

  8. This is a good book on the topic: Searching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada and the Migration of Memory

  9. I read all her books. Would recommend anyone to read at least Aleksandra. Such a beautiful homage to Ukraine.

  10. I thought I was a student of 1914-1946 but I have never heard of this. Thank you. I’ll be on another deep dive. 💙💛🇺🇦

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