On September 9th, a meeting of two clubs, Historical and Retro-7:40, was held in Rimon. Community members came for the presentation of a film, produced by Ukrainian Television, "War and Peace. Evacuation. Members of our community, who lived through the tragic events related to the war and evacuation, also participated in the film.

Director of the Historic club Isaak Ezrovich Grinberg explained how our Almaty Jews could participate in the Ukrainian documentary: "For many years, our club has been cooperating with the Central State Archive of Kazakhstan, archive of the President of Kazakhstan. Lately, we have worked together on compiling materials about evacuation. When Ukrainian TV asked Kazakhstan archive specialists for help, they were referred to me. We have been working over the phone for a long time, and then the film crew came to Almaty, it filmed the original documents in Kazakhstan archives, lists of evacuated people, ration cards, interviewed members of our community, who had been evacuated themselves."

Thus how life stories of Mila Tokar, Lilya Shparberg, Tsiliya Goyshtein, and Isaak Grinberg were included in the Ukrainian film. The film consists of four 45-minute parts. Every part is devoted to a specific period of the evacuation. A lot of work has been done. The film was made in different cities and countries - in Moscow, St Petersburg, on Ural, in Kazakhstan, and certainly in Ukraine. The film includes stories of such well know people as poet Igor Resnik, actors Yuriy Yakovlev, Igor Kvash, Svetlana Nemolyayeva, and common people not known to the wide public.

Our film characters were present. We decided to watch the film in two stages. A lot was said about what people had lived through as the film revived everybody’s personal recollections. Club members will surely see the other two parts in the nearest future.

"I have been crying during the whole film, - says Mila Tokar, - but Ukrainian TV has done a very important thing. They recorded recollections of people, who still remember a lot from those dreadful years. This is a passing generation and it is important to preserve this generation’s recollections. We will certainly watch this film."

Dina Lyskovskaya