Blinshteyn family papers

Zhanna Berina was born on 13 September 1930 in Odessa, Ukrainian S.S.R. (present-day Odesa, Ukraine), the daughter of Semyon (1905-1971) and Velya (nee Ertvah, 1905-1974) Blinshteyn. In addition to Zhanna, the Blinshteyns had two other children, a son, Naum (1925-1945) and a daughter, Fanya (1939-2017). The Blinshteyn family was living in Odessa when Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Semyon was conscripted into the Red Army, in which he served for the duration of the war. In the early days of the occupation, many family members were killed.

In January 1942, Velya and her children were moved to the Slobodka ghetto, where they sought to avoid being placed on a transport to one of the nearby camps, managing to escape such transports on a couple of occasions. In June 1942, however, the family was sent to the Domanevka concentration camp, and from there was sent to work as forced laborers on nearby farms for the duration of the occupation, living in squalid conditions, such as stalls meant for livestock. In March 1944, the Romanian and German occupation forces retreated, and the Domanevka camp was liberated by the Red Army. The retreating Germans took many of the male prisoners with them, including Zhanna’s brother, Naum, who subsequently managed to escape and return to Odessa, where he reunited with his family. Shortly after that, however, he was conscripted into the Red Army, and was killed in action in Poland on 19 January 1945. After the war, Semyon, who had survived, returned to his family in Odessa.

In 1989, Zhanna, her daughter, Nonna, and grandchildren, immigrated to the United States. With the help of the American Red Cross and other organizations, they subsequently were able to locate the grave of Naum Blinshteyn, who had been buried in a Soviet military cemetery in Pułtusk, Poland. With the help of American and Polish friends, a gravestone was placed there in 1996, and they were able to visit his grave in 2002. Zhanna’s sister Fanya passed away in Israel in 2017.