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And here is what was in store for Saida Efimovna Dementyeva, who
has been working as a doctor's assistant in Petropavlovsk medical unit for 29
years.
In summer 1941 her mother Sofya Isayevna Svitkina (1905-1987)
was evacuated to Stalingradskaya Oblast with two children (8 and 5 years old).
She worked there as a radio operator.
On February 23, 1942 she gave a birth to a girl right in the trench.
Another radio operator - Galiya, a Tatar from Kazan, who had lost an eight-years-old
daughter during the war, assisted Sofya. When the mother asked Galiya how she
could thank her for rescuing her baby's life, the latter asked to call the baby
Saida in memory of her only child.
And so, the Jewish girl was given a Tatar name - Saida.
When the sister of Sofya's husband-soldier found out about the child
being born, she advised the mother to leave the baby on a road, else there would
be not enough food for her other children. But Sofya refused. She had no milk,
but they found mussels in the river Volga, boiled their meat and fed the baby
with the broth. They had been living like that for a year till Sofya found a
job at a canteen, where she got salary with bred, potatoes, and milk.
Soon they found out that her husband, Efim Portman was killed at
the front.
In 1945 the family went back to Kiev. Their house was destroyed,
they had nowhere to live, and besides there were many other problems. The brother
of Saida's father came to them from Leningrad and as he was single, he offered
to adopt Saida. But her mother refused: "I did not leave my daughter on
a road, according to your sister's advice, and now I will bring her up as well
as my other children".
And she kept her word. Her elder daughter Bella currently lives
in Australia, where her children took her. Her son Alexander lives in Israel,
and his daughter Inna, having served in the army, is studying in Tel Aviv medical
university.
And Saida Efimovna, a pensioner, lives in Petropavlovsk together
with her husband and son.
Mark Vitkin |
