An attempt to establish the identity

The author has received many letters from various people, seeing the officer his relative [1].

In early 1970 the journalists of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" and members of the Lugansk regional youth organization "Молодогвардієць" (Russian "Molodogvardeets") sought to identify imprinted on the famous image of man. He allegedly was a native of Art. Millet Vasilkovskaja region Dnipropetrovsk region Alexei Eremenko Gordeevich, junior commissar of one of the mouths of 220 Infantry Regiment, 4 th infantry division.

This is what about those events a former soldier sanvzvoda 220 th Regiment, later Major-political worker Alexander Makarov Matveyevich [2]: Fascists frenzied rush into the attack after attack. The dead and wounded were many. We beat a depleted regiment had one-tenth or eleventh attack. The Germans climbed ahead to Vorochilovgrad, to which was about thirty miles. By the end of the day was wounded company commander Lt. Petrenko. After a fierce bombardment, backed by tanks and artillery, the Germans went into another attack. And then, to his full height, with the words: "Follow me! For the Motherland! Forward! "Eremenko dragged a company to meet chains Nazis. The attack was repulsed, but the political instructor was killed.


Veteran of the 285 th Division, Lt. Col. Vasily stock Sevastyanovich Berezubchak describes these events as follows [1]: Eight months, our division was on the defensive, covering Voroshilovgrad direction. Then, on the orders of General Grechko moved to a new line, took up defensive positions near the village of Good. Here and in a hot battle, during which killed commissar Eremenko. I find it hard to believe that the picture was taken in another place, while another battle. Because the man was killed Eremenko during a counterattack. However, in that battle there was not a reporter ...

And it was this morning on July 12. We have hit a barrage artogon. We repulsed the first attack. But during the second shook right flank. The soldiers began to retreat. We have gone deaf, blind, many blood flowed from his ears - burst eardrums! I was ordered to restore the division commander, to stop the soldiers, because the situation was created critical. Hurried toward the retreating. And then he saw Eremenko. He, too, ran across the path of men. "Stop! Hold on! "- He cried. We lay down. Gathered around him people. Few have been, a handful. But Eremenko decided counterattack to restore the situation. This can not be forgotten. He stood up, shouted, jumped into the attack. We rushed into the trench, melee ensued. Fought with rifle butts, bayonets. The Germans wavered, and fled. Soon, one of the trenches, I saw Eremenko. He slowly fell. I ran to him and realized that in helping junior political instructor no longer needs ...


On the other hand, according to TSAMO, political instructor AG Eremenko missing in January 1942 [3], ie, the documents he had been killed early in the year and not fully clarified. However, it is alleged that the widow, after 32 years, ie about the same time, the time of the said search for Komsomolskaya Pravda, has received a new notification to the amendment of the heroic death of her husband on July 12 [1].

Near route Lugansk Artemivsk (so-called Bakhmutskaya road or Bakhmutka) before turning on Slavyanoserbsk a monument to the battalion commander (political officer), who repeats the story, shown in the photo. Although the battle took place south - in a valley near the village of Good.
Image political instructor, based on this picture is the emblem of the Donetsk Higher Military-Political School.
The image was used on a postage stamp of the Republic of the Congo in 1985. [6]

About 80%of all deaths in WWII fell on the Soviet front, and among them 200,000 Soviet Jewish soldiers, 148 of which were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

I think I had the great honor to express my gratitude to the Jewish people to Russian people.

In the history of Eastern European Jewry, including the Russian, you can find a lot of unpleasant and sometimes terrible events. Jewish pogroms of the late XIX - early XX centuries, the Stalinist repression, anti-Semitism and so on, and we will always remember this.

However, referring to the general historical picture, I want to thank the Russian people for a great victory for a broad cultural stratum, which he awarded the Soviet Jews, a fact that allowed Jews to immigrate to Israel and now live here more than a million Russian citizens that have had a tremendous impact on the development of the State of Israel.

Thanks largely to immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Israel has evolved from a small country in the geographical dimension in a technological power. Despite the fact that our countries are geographically located in a completely different regions, historical and cultural values of our peoples are very close. Moreover, being quite far from the Slavic countries, Israel is the only country in the world (excluding the CIS), where the Russian language is used daily by more than 20%of the population.

- With what you personally connected Victory Day, and this war? You've immigrated to Israel in 1934, aged 11 years, were so far away from the tragedy of European Jewry.

For us, then the war was perceived in several different directions. We were important, three different phases of the disaster for all mankind. First, the war allies against the Nazi invaders, and then the Holocaust, and postwar developments.

I grew up in a Jewish settlement in Eastern Europe, studied at the Jewish school, and Hebrew from an early childhood was my mother tongue, at home also spoke in Russian and Yiddish. Half of the family, the younger, moved to Israel, the other half stayed there. Arriving in the Holy Land, we do not know what was happening there, we were unable to communication with family and not much to know about the world events. Information was quite enough.

How lost part of my family, rest in Belarus, we learned later. My grandfather, who had an important influence in my upbringing, the head of the Jewish community, along with his grandmother and other residents of the community were burnt alive by the fascists in the local synagogue. I learned about this only after a war. It was a very heavy personal tragedy for me.

But here, in what was then Palestine under the Mandate, the British encouraged men in his army, and my father went to serve in the army of Her Majesty. Along with a group of British soldiers he was taken prisoner when the Nazis occupied Greece. He and several of his comrades managed to escape, and some years they hid from German soldiers. Then, stealing fishing boat, they attempted to escape by sea. But the unfortunate father again caught him, and on this occasion was sent to prison camp near Auschwitz. Father managed to escape from there. After some time, he was again caught and has been trying to shoot, but his salvation Austrian priest closed it is threatening the soldiers, that Soviet troops tear them to shreds if they continue to shoot the prisoners without charge or trial.

My father returned home alive and unharmed. The war ended, the Nazis were on their knees, but the suffering of our people were not over. It was found that the survivors in the meat grinder of war and the Holocaust, Jews have nowhere to return, in front of them closed all the doors. Then Ben-Gurion visited the camp after the war, and impressed by what he saw, was determined to go through with the education of the state. Following a long war with the Nazis had to fight with the British for the right of a state in the land of Israel, which will take all the Jews and become their present homeland. I participated in this struggle.