178 179 THE KOCUR FAMILY Anna and Theodor Kocur lived in a village near Lemberg (Polish: Lwów; Ukrainian: Lviv) in eastern Poland, where they belonged to the Ukrainian minority. Since 1920 they had owned a large farmstead which was confiscated when Soviet troops occupied the region in 1939. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in summer 1941, the region fell under German rule and the Kocurs could return to their farm. When the Soviets recaptured ANNA KOCUR AND HER HUSBAND THEODOR Yonkers, NY (USA), 1963 Germans from Russia who did not succeed in fleeing further west and ended up behind Soviet lines were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. In March 1944, Maria Kußmaul, her two daughters Ella and Alita, and her mother-in-law Elisabeth fled from the Odessa region to the Warthegau where the Soviet authorities then seized them and deported them to the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. As ‘special settlers’ they were placed under police surveillance and were put to hard labour in the timber industry. In addition to evacuating the ethnic German population, the Wehrmacht and the Coordination Centres also recruited Soviet citizens for forced labour and took them westwards. Those unfit for work because of old age or illness and women with infants, however, were simply left to fend for themselves. In March 1944, the Wehrmacht set up three makeshift camps near the village of Ozarichi in Byelorussia. Over 40,000 people were crowded into these camps without shelter. At least 9,000 of them died within a week. Displaced Persons after losing their Home
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