Audio Interviews and Transcripts

Interview with Yeva Dogayman
by Marya Barinova

Below is the interview Marya conducted with her grandmother, Yeva Dogayman. Yeva Dogayman was around twelve years old at the time of the war. She was a Jewish child living in Odessa, Ukraine (which was at the time part of the U.S.S.R.). She and her family were fortunate enough to have been able to leave Odessa, just before the Germans occupied it. Throughout the war, they were transported around the U.S.S.R. and managed to avoid any conflicts with the German army. You can read a part of the interview below in the transcript, translated and typed out by the student, or listen to the full interview in Russian in the audio player below.


Yeva: We were met [by the villagers] as if we were relatives. We were offered the best room. At first, we lived in the mayor’s house, but there was very many of us and we didn’t want to impose. Therefore we decided to move into his niece’s house.

Marya: By “many of us” how many do you mean?

Yeva: Our family, our entire family.

Marya: And who was that?

Yeva: There was seven of us.

Marya: So your aunt, her husband?

Yeva: Her husband, her daughter, myself, my sister, and our parents.

Marya: Oh ok, yes.

Yeva: So we moved there [niece’s house] to live. Unlike the mayor, her husband was at the front, and she had 4 children. They lived quite modestly, and off of their farm. They didn’t have many things. Nevertheless, we lived quite happily there. We worked on the plantation with them. I was 13 at the time, and I, like everyone, worked and helped out. Later, the Germans started to get closer and we managed to get out before that village was occupied as well, by the Germans.

Marya: Mhm.

Yeva: We managed to get to Ordzhonikidze. In Ordzhonikidze there were no Germans, but they were close, so we were evacuated to Yerevan, in the Armenian Republic. People there were also very kind. My father got a job there. I can tell you about it; I don’t know if you need details, but it’s interesting.

Marya: No, go ahead.

Yeva: My father got a job as a cafeteria security guard. The cafeteria fed only officers. Not even their wives could eat there; only the officers were fed there. When they were evacuating the wives of the officers, we were evacuated as well. We were put into freight trains, and some people were afraid of going to Armenia. One of the trains was going to Uzbekistan, in central Asia. Some people switched trains. My mother was a very intelligent person, and said that fate will take us wherever we were meant to go. Wherever it takes us, we will go. So the train took us to Yerevan. In Yerevan, military people met the officers’ wives. There were in civilian clothing, and already had apartments prepared for them. We weren’t considered military, and so we were standing there with all our clothes. We didn’t know where to go. Papa was walking around, trying to find out where they could get an apartment. A person approached him. My father was short and chubby with glasses. When we lived in the village, my father was put in charge of watching the bulls, who were afraid of him. A person approaches him, and asks what his job had been. Papa answered that he was a security guard. The man asks if he knows how to work at a warehouse. Papa says yes, because he had worked in a warehouse and sometimes took over as manager, when the manager was not there. He was familiar with the work and tells the person that he was familiar with it.

The person says ok, writes his address and name on a paper, and tells my father to go to the address and ask for General Syarkisana. Papa says, why are you joking around like that, you have nothing better to do, laughing at me. He got very angry at him. The man patted him on the shoulder and told him to go to the address. Papa goes back to mama, and says, how do you like it, the nerve of him, thinks he’s funny. However, he did tell him where to find an apartment. Mama says maybe he’s not a general, maybe he was kidding, but maybe he could help you, go to the address, what do you have to lose. We took out his clothes and ironed his suit, so he would look presentable. When Papa got to the address, the guard asks his name, Papa showed him his documents, and the guard says, yes the general is waiting for you. He walks into the room, and the man is sitting at the table in a general’s uniform. We spent the rest of the war there.