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Born in Komsomol’skoe (formerly Makhnovka), in the former Soviet Union (now Ukraine), in 1931, Polina grew up in a hard-working family of 11. In September 1941, German soldiers and the local police rounded up the Jews living in Komsomol’skoe and took them to the outskirts of town for mass execution. Standing in the last row to be shot, Polina fell into the ditch alive. Her mother and two brothers were killed. When night fell, Polina crawled out of the mass grave and walked into town, where she was reunited with her father who, along with a few surviving Jews, was selected for forced labor and sent to a concentration camp. He provided Polina with false documents and urged her to flee. Following her father’s advice, Polina escaped from the camp in December 1941. All remaining camp prisoners, including Polina’s father, were executed  |
shortly thereafter. Polina survived the rest of the war living under false identity until she was liberated by the Soviet army in 1943. Polina believes that she survived in order to fulfill her duty to tell people about the tragedy of the Jews in her hometown. In May 1945, she testified in Kiev in a war crimes trial of the Ukrainian policemen who collaborated with the Nazis.
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