Project's texts
Photo archive of forced laborer Hanna Kovalenko, Poltava Oblast
In April 2022, we managed to buy at an online auction an archive of 20 photographs dated 1943-1945. Most of them have inscriptions on the back, addressed to Halia Kovalenko. In this particular case, “Halia” is a nickname for Hanna. This archive belonged to Hanna Stepanivna Konko (née Kovalenko.)
Photo of forced laborers Mykola Ripenetskyi, Feodosiy Bezvushko, and Areon Fliorko, Khmelnytskyi Oblast
These photos are among the first in the collection. The inscriptions on the backs confirm that forced laborer Mykola Ripenetskyi sent them to his family – wife and son.
Photo of forced laborers Mykhailo Temchenko and Ivan Liubka, Sumy Oblast
This photo was bought at an online auction in August 2020. The only clue to identifying the forced laborers in it was the signature on the back. We traced their fates and learned more about their experiences during World War II thanks to documents found in the State Archives of Sumy Region and the Arolsen Archives – The International Center on Nazi Persecution.
Ukrainian forced laborers in Nazi Germany: recruitment, forced labor, and repatriation
The following article about Ukrainian forced laborers (male and female) in Nazi Germany during the Second World War focuses on their recruitment and labor exploitation, their return home, and Soviet filtration measures. The compensation payments that the Ostarbeiter were able to obtain in the 1990s and 2000s are also discussed.
From a distant land to my native Ukraine. Letters of the forced laborer Hanna Pastukh
The letters of Hanna Pastukh represent the plight of a young woman who was taken from her native Ukraine in 1943 and forced to work as a laborer in Germany until 1945. Through writing letters, she tried to maintain a connection to her home and family.