Volodymyr Liker was born Vladimir Liker (nicknamed Vova) on June 16, 1934, in Kiev, Soviet Union (now Ukraine). He was the only son of Naum Liker and Rosa Rosenbojm Liker. The family lived on lnstitucka Street in Kiev. Naum Liker (b. 1895) worked in a marble factory, and Rosa (b. January 10, 1904) worked as a nurse in the ammunition factory. The family went to the Brodzkie synagogue on Jewish holidays. Immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union, the Liker family was evacuated by the ammunition factory, but the train stopped not far from Kiev and they had to return to town. On September 28, 1941, German authorities announced that all of the Jews of Kiev had to come the next day to an assembly point for resettlement. On September 29 the Liker family walked in the direction of the Jewish cemetery along with more than 30,000 Kiev Jews. On the way they met a non-Jewish friend who asked where they were going, and upon hearing the reply she urged Rosa and her small son to let Naum Liker go to the new place first and wait to hear from him before joining him. Naum Liker was murdered in the massacre at Babi Yar, a ravine at the outskirts of Kiev.
Rosa arranged for false papers for herself and Vova which stated that their names were Lidia and Vladimir Rudnicki and that they were Poles. They volunteered for forced labor in Germany, and in 1942 they were sent to Hettstedt near Halle where both worked in a stone quarry. For a few months, Vova was separated from his mother, but in the spring of 1945, when the United States Army liberated the area, they were reunited. Vladimir and his mother returned to Kiev, and Vova, who was 11 years old at that time, returned to school. In 1952 Vova was drafted into the Soviet Army. He later attended a Polytechnic and became an engineer. Rosa Liker kept her wartime name of Lidia Rudnicki, but Vladimir changed his name back to Liker at the age of 18. Rosa Liker died in 1986. Vladimir left Russia in 2000 and settled in Viernheim, Germany.
