“Life after the war was hard. There was a terrible famine in Belarus. We survived as best we could. We, the children of the war, had a hard life. The war took away our childhood and youth.
I'll never forget when we went to the first grade. It snowed on September 1st. Some of my classmates had their parents sew a coat from German clothes to keep them warm on the street. Everyone had “торбочки” - there were no briefcases, our mothers or grandmothers sewed them themselves and in them there was an ABC book. At school at the lunch break we were given 50 grams of bread, a small piece and a teaspoon of sugar. It was a very hard time. I had to work hard as a teenager, I had to help my mother.
There was a ration card system then, bread was given by coupons. My mom gave us some of it, and left some for later. Now I see how bread is thrown away - some people don't appreciate it, don't finish it and throw it away. But at that time bread was kissed, it was very much needed.”