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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