Interview with the real "Marta"

75 years after surviving the Holodomor--a man-made  famine that took place in Ukraine during the winter of 1932-33--Marta remembers what life was like under Stalin's rule... An infamous time in history that is being made into the new feature film based on the life of her grandfather: UNDER JAKOB'S LADDER.
{{ Interview Date: November 2008 }}

Q: You were born and raised in a small village in Ukraine. How old were you during the forced famine of 1932-33?  
A: I was born in 1927. Let's see... I was 5 years old, almost 6.

Q: Do you remember the famine?
A: You can't forget a thing like that.

Q: What was it like?
A: It's hard to tell [you]. It was terrible.

Q: How did you and your family survive?
A: My grandmother was very smart. She rationed our food. She said, "This and this is for today." And that was it. We ate only what she had put aside for the day.

Q: Is there anything else you remember?
A: One day a horse died. It was a sick horse. But the children of the village went and they took the meat from the dead horse and brought it home. They ate it. My brother brought some of the meat to our house, too. But my mother would not cook it. It had come from a horse that had been sick. She would not let us eat it.

Q: How did you get over your hunger?
A: My brother was so hungry all the time. He was four years older than me. He would pick grass and eat it. He told me how good it was. But I would not eat it. I just couldn't eat the grass, even though I was very hungry. I slept a lot. That helped me not think about food.

Q: Why was there no food that winter?
A: We had a good harvest that year. "They" came and took it from us. Even down to the tiniest potatoes. We had the potatoes stored in a hole in the ground. But a lady came and she took even the littlest potato. 

Q: Why did the Soviets do that to your people?
A: They wanted to see what we would do. Stalin said that if we had no food, then we were beaten. He didn't say those exact words, but that is what he meant.

Q: How did you live?
A: We went to bed early. My father said that if we went to sleep, we wouldn't feel hungry. We got up late in the morning. We didn't work. We were too tired.  

Q: What did you eat?
A: My grandmother and mother made "soup". With flour and a few beans. There was more water than anything in the soup. When the food ran out, we took all the gold we had and sold it in the city. We got almost nothing for the gold; but gold doesn't matter when you are hungry.    

Q: When did relief come?
A: The Americans sent food. Our people would not have lived without that food. If we went to school, they gave us food. I didn't like to go to school. But I had to, so I could get something to eat.

Q: Did people die in your village?
A: Yes. Mostly the old men. It's strange. The old women lived, but the old men died.

Q: Did any children die?
A: Yes. But nobody counted them.

Q: Where were the people buried?
A: I don't remember. It was winter so the ground was hard. I don't know what they did.

Q: How do you think you were able to survive that experience?
A: The prayers. My grandfather prayed and he believed. God kept us alive. That's how I see it.

» back to Press Room

Quick Links