In October 2024, in an old bomb shelter of a weaving factory in Gräfenbroich, German researchers found inscriptions left by Ostarbeiter women from Ukraine.
To find out more about the women whose fate remained unknown for 80 years, we contacted the public organization “After Silence.” Among other things, its researchers are collecting an online archive of photographs and stories from the life of Ukrainian Ostarbeiters in Nazi Germany.
We have been working with the topic of forced labor for several years now. The hardest part is identifying people. There were only last names and first initials,” the head of the organization, historian Andrei Usach, told Public.
The village museum helped find out the fate of the Ukrainian women.
The search eventually led to the school museum in the village of Mokra Kalikhirka, Cherkasy region, where the ostarbeiters who left their names on the wall of the bunker came from.
They gave a cry to all settlements of our community. The search is now underway. Some names have already been discovered and researched,” says the head of the museum, Lyudmila Diduk.
To help with research, he pulled up the archives of the local village council for the years 1944-46. And she wrote down the names of those who may have been taken to forced labor by the Nazis.
They will look for information about the Ostarbeiter together with the children.
The Cherkassy archive also helped the researchers – there they found the filtration files of three girls. As Andrei Usach explained, all the transported female workers underwent so-called filtration.
These women did not work in Gräfenbroich itself, but in neighboring towns. They said that before the offensive of the Allied armies they began to be transported throughout Germany.
Lyudmila Diduk will explore the biography of other women together with her students. For this purpose, a real expedition was organized at the school where children from six villages study. Students will interview old-timers to find information about the owners of surnames from the wall of a German bunker.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.