From Siberia to Cincinnati: One Holocaust Survivor's Journey

By Christy Cauley

With blue eyes hidden behind red coralpatterned bifocals, Halina Czuchriy Campbell appears to be an unassuming 77-year-old. But it’s the story hiding behind those eyes that truly sets her apart.

When Campbell speaks, her Ukrainian accent is still evident.

Halina Czuchriy Campbell “In my life, I must have lived three or four lifetimes,” she said in a recent interview. Campbell once dreamed of being a ballerina, but her dreams were shattered when war broke out in Europe and her entire family was imprisoned in a Nazi labor camp.

Growing up in Ukraine Campbell was born in the Ural Mountains of Siberia, Russia. Her parents were there visiting her uncles who were living in exile. Their crime? Owning a horse. In 1929 Russia was ruled by communist leader, Joseph Stalin, and private ownership was forbidden. “My father told me one of his brothers was killed by Bolsheviks,” Campbell said, “So, my father hated the communists.” Campbell’s parents brought their baby home to Ukraine shortly after birth. Later, they had a son, Campbell’s only sibling, Eugene, who suffered from cerebral palsy. Her parents were both school teachers and her father was adamant that she receive a good education as well.

Her parents had a modest home that included a library filled with books to help Campbell and her brother further their education. But her most prized possession, by far, was her piano. Growing up, she practiced for at least an hour every day. On June 22, 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union. Within a year, Campbell and her family were forced to leave their home and most of their possessions behind, including her precious piano.

“I remember sitting in the back of the wagon watching the neighbors running across the street,” she said, “I saw them running into our house getting our stuff.” With only their clothes, some sugar cookies for bread and a horse-drawn wagon, Campbell’s family headed west. They traveled from village to village for over two months living off of the kindness of strangers.

When the rains came, they could no longer travel by wagon, so Campbell’s family got on a train headed for Nuremberg, Germany. When they arrived they were placed in a forced labor camp, along with other Russian and Ukrainian citizens.

Life in a Labor Camp Living in barracks behind barbed wire, Campbell’s family was put to work. She and her father worked in a factory while her mother stayed in the camp and taught children, like Eugene, who were not yet old enough to work.

As Campbell discussed her time in the labor camp, she occasionally paused to offer spelling and punctuation advice. “I’m sorry, I just can't help it, teacher’s daughter you know,” she said, with a wink.

“Lager Fuhrer, the head of the camp, decided I was too old for school; that I should be working doing something worthwhile,” Campbell said. So he put her to work in a factory making fire extinguishers.

She continued, “They would wake us up around 4 o’clock in the morning and feed us, it was like one slice of bologna, one cold potato, and a cup of café ersatz, meaning substitute coffee.” Then it was off to the factory. Life continued in this manner until the Nazis discovered that Campbell could speak German.

“I was the best,” she said, tipping her head forward. “I’m not bragging, I’m just stating the facts, that I was the best student in German,” Campbell continued, tapping her index finger on the table in front of her. The Nazis then assigned her to be a messenger and translator for an elderly German man who coordinated several factories. When he retired, Campbell took his place.

Campbell's family struggled to get by for well over two years, but in early 1945, the allies began to move into Germany. Back at the camp, there was constant fear of allied bombing.

After the first few bombings, the Nazis made the prisoners bury their belongings outside the barracks. “Back then my mother used to have a beautiful black velvet winter coat trimmed with moleskin,” Campbell said. After one particular bombing, she continued, “one lady said to my mother that she saw it about two miles away.”

During the next bombing, Campbell said, her brother was extremely frightened. “He was still hollering ’momma, momma!’ I was scared too and I thought that was it,” she said, clutching the hexagon-shaped flower charm on her gold necklace.

“After it was over,” she continued, “nobody ever worried about their belongings again because we never knew what was going to happen to us from day to day. You didn’t care about anything like that, just your life.” When the labor camp was nearly destroyed, the Nazis packed up all of their prisoners and moved them into an abandoned school house in the city. Bombing raids were even more frightening there.

“We just hated to go down in the cellar because if there was bombing going on, we would rather have been killed outside, not covered up with rubble and crushed to death, which happened to a lot of people,” she said, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. Then, one day the German guards just disappeared. The prisoners quickly realized that they had to fend for themselves. Fearing that adults would be shot on sight, the frightened prisoners sent the children out to search for food.

Campbell and a group of her friends wandered through the desolate city until they found an American soldier standing on a bridge. “He had watches all the way from here to here,” she said, tracing her index finger from her wrist to her shoulder. That soldier was kind enough to give them some chocolate.