Bitter Anniversary

February 24 is a bitter anniversary in my calendar.

On February 24, 1943 my mother - then a teenager with dreams of a life as a pharmacist - was abducted from her school by Nazi soldiers and sent in a cattle car to work as a slave in Germany.

At the time of her abduction my mother was living in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, when it was part of the USSR. She never saw her parents or her homeland again. She was only seventeen. That's her, on the left, with two school friends, in a photo taken just before the abduction.

Growing up, I knew nothing of this. Mama was reluctant to talk about her past. After she died I found a bundle of old letters. When I read them, and learned what happened, I decide to write her story - The Golden Daughter.

So in 2022, I set up a trip to Germany and Ukraine to research her past. Then the unthinkable happened. 

On February 24, 2022, Putin invaded Ukraine - the same day and the same month the Nazis took my mother.

Now, three years later, February 24 remains a bitter anniversary for me. But I have hope. My mother survived her ordeal as a Nazi slave in Germany and got to build a new life in Canada. 

Ukraine is still fighting, much to Putin’s chagrin. Ukraine is tired, but I believe they will overcome... like my mother did. Then February 24 will be a lesson to all dictators who think they can blithely invade or annexe an independent country.

Slava Ukraini! Glory to Ukraine!