Mina’s Story - A Doctor’s Memoir of the Holocaust - Ukrainian Edition Launched in Toronto

The Ukrainian edition of Mina’s Story - A Doctor’s Memoir of the Holocaust (Історія Міни - Спогади лікаря про Голокост) was presented on May 1, 2012 at St. Vladimir Institute in Toronto. The event was organized by the St. Vladimir Institute, the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, and the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative.

Mina’s Story is an extraordinary account of survival and perseverance during the Holocaust. Mina, who studied medicine in Czechoslovakia, where she met her husband Dr. Leon Deutsch, lived in Warsaw and, when World War II broke out, went to Peremyshl, then to Borshchiv. Her parents and brother were murdered in Borshchiv by the Gestapo, after which Mina, Leon and their infant daughter Eva fled to the countryside. They and Mina’s sister, Rachel, her husband, and son Philip Goldig were hidden in an underground bunker underneath a chicken coop for almost two years by two Ukrainian farmers, Krawczuk and Kukurudza. Both were posthumously honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Dr. Deutsch’s account of life in the bunker is especially powerful, as she describes, in harrowing detail, the dangers, privations, and fear the young families faced every day.

Lida Smylka, Cultural Director at St. Vladimir’s, opened the evening with a short greeting in Ukrainian; the rest of the programme was in English. Dr. Frank Sysyn, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, spoke about the historical background of the lands of Mina’s Story. In his presentation, Dr. Sysyn provided the audience with a nuanced and convincing account of the complex inter-ethnic relations between Poles, Ukrainians and Jews in Galicia from the Hapsburg Empire to the years leading up to World War II, and the interactions between these ethnic groups and successive ruling regimes.

Dr. Jeffrey Kopstein, Acting Director, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto, spoke about Mina’s Story in the broader context of the Holocaust. While the picture we have of the Holocaust is one of industrial, impersonal killing - the gas chambers of Auschwitz, the railroads to Buchenwald - this is in fact a partial and in some ways, deeply flawed picture. According to Prof. Kopstein, much of the violence and killing that took place was deeply personal and even intimate. Often, victims knew the people who would eventually kill them. Dr. Kopstein argued that our understanding of the Holocaust has changed in recent years due, in large part, to the huge amount of memoir literature that has become available, of which, in some ways, Mina’s Story is emblematic.

The audience was honoured to have present several family members of the late Dr. Deutsch, who passed away in 2004. Dr. Eva Andermann, Dr. Deutsch’s daughter, who survived the Holocaust as a young child with her mother, read excerpts from Mina’s Story. Particularly moving were passages about family members who did not survive. She mentioned the help and advice Mina and her family received from a Ukrainian priest just before the return of the Soviet Red Army.

Philip Goldig, Dr. Andermann’s cousin, who survived the Holocaust with the Deutsch Family, described how the family succeeded in getting the Kukurudza and Krawchuk families recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Mr. Goldig shared with the audience the story of the reunion, after 65 years, of the families at the ceremony honouring the Kukurudza and Krawchuk families as Righteous Among the Nations, in Kyiv in 2009. 

“After 65 years, the impact of this emotional happening was something that we will remember for the rest of our lives. We kissed, we hugged, we cried, we laughed... People that risked their lives and the lives of their children in order to save another human being, these were our families, and these are the families that we hope to remember as long as we live.”

Dr. Lisa Andermann, Dr. Deutsch’s granddaughter, narrated a slideshow presentation of pictures of the Deutsch Family before and after the War, and later, in Canada, and of the family’s return to Ukraine. Dr. Lisa Andermann also showed photos from the Righteous ceremony in Kyiv in 2009. Michael Prokaziuk, Dr. Lisa Andermann’s husband, described the process of publishing the Ukrainian version of Mina’s Story. It was published in Ukraine with the help of Dr. Leonid Finberg, by Dukh i Litera, and translated by Andriy Pavlyshyn.

Philip Goldig then chanted a memorial prayer for all those who perished in the Holocaust, as well as all the people who perished in similar tragedies all over the world.

The final speaker was Raya Shadursky, Director of Operations, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative, who summed up the evening. “Tonight has provided us with a greater understanding of one of the darkest periods of the 20th Century. It’s also allowed us to know how important it is to keep the rescuer and survivor stories alive...The saving of one life is really the saving of many, and with Dr. Deutsch, the saving of her life was the saving of her children, her grandchildren, her great grandchildren...To you, we thank you for your story.”

 Mina’s Story stands as a testimony to the triumph of humanity and kindness over evil and cruelty.  A truly inspirational account, Dr. Deutsch’s memoir is unique for its extraordinary detail and eloquence. The organizers wish to thank everyone who participated, especially the family of the late Dr. Mina Deutsch, in what was a moving and inspirational evening,

Both Ukrainian and English versions of Mina’s Story can be purchased for $15 through the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, tel.: 416-966-1819, email: office@ucrdc.org.

Orest Zakydalsky,

UCRDC

 
PHOTOS

1 – Raya Shadursky, Director of Operations, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative

2 – Dr. Frank Sysyn, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies

3 – Dr. Eva Andermann, Dr. Mina Deutsch’s daughter

4 – Dr. Jeffrey Kopstein, Acting Director, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto

5 – Philip Goldig, Dr. Mina Deutsch’s nephew