JUNE 2 • 2022 | 15
the road.
The path was difficult phys-
ically and mentally, but we
made it out alive. It was painful
to see my parents for the first
time since the beginning of
the war. In the 10 days I hadn’t
seen them, they seemed to
grow old. They were deprived
of the opportunity to spend
their retirement in comfort, in
their home, among the items
they accumulated all their lives.
Their tears and empty looks
that day will remain lodged in
my memory forever.
After many hours of driving,
we arrived in the city of Dnipro
[about 135 miles southwest
of Kharkiv]. Our friends were
waiting for us and sheltered us
in their country home, along-
side four other families. As of
today, the home continues to
open its doors to people fleeing
Kharkiv. In the two months we
have lived with them, two more
families have joined us. Yet, at
the time, we were afraid Dnipro
would have a lack of food like
Kharkiv, so the first thing we
did was gather food. We were
terrified and we needed time
to recover, to not be afraid to
approach a window.
FINDING A PATH
FORWARD
That day, on March 2, the
word “evacuation” entered my
life. Just like my family during
World War II, we had left our
homes behind. We had to run,
survive and look for a new
shelter over our heads. Our
family archive continued their
evacuation files, and now it was
supplemented with our own
personal certificates of dis-
placed persons.
Every day, I continued to
wake at 5 a.m. like I did in
Kharkiv, the time when bomb-
ings began. I slept and still sleep
in all of my clothes, with my
shoes at the side of the bed, in
case we need to run to a bomb
shelter in the middle of the
night. Even now, two months
later, air sirens ring constantly,
as the threat of war comes clos-
er to Dnipro. On a few occa-
sions, military infrastructure in
the city was actually bombed.
It’s still not safe.
I now understand that evacu-
ation has two sides. The first is
a fear for one’s life, the unbear-
able pain of parting, the fright-
ened looks, shaking animals
and faces filled with tears. The
second side is the appreciation
for the support of the military,
the strangers waiting in Dnipro
ready to help, the calls from
colleagues and friends. In this
moment, every call pushes you
to continue moving
forward, to continue surviving.
It returns you to the ground
beneath your feet and stops you
from feeling disappointed in the
world.
During that time six years
ago when I took part in the
“Book of Generations” project,
I compiled a family tree which
I posted on a public genealogy
platform. Many years later, our
Zlatopolsky relatives in Detroit,
who we had lost touch with
after they immigrated to the
LEFT: Menorah in Dnipro, which has a massive Jewish community. RIGHT: Iana gathers supplies for
Ukraine troops as part of volunteer efforts.
continued on page 16
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