Valentina Shishlo was born in February 1936 in the village of Bielica near Žlobin and experienced the horrors of World War II as a young girl. During the German occupation, her family first lived in her grandparents’ house and later in a cramped stable. In March 1944, at the age of eight, she was deported along with her mother and siblings to a camp near Azaryčy. She lost three of her younger brothers in the camp and had to fight a serious illness herself, which she had to have treated in a military hospital after liberation.
(s. Ausstellung Osaritschi / Шишло В._Шкуран Ар.)
«Утром нас никто не подымает, собаки не гавкают, ничего и все тихонечко голову поднимают, кто жив остался вставал. Идут наши спасители. Ой, после этого столько погибло людей. Все же рванули. Они кричат: ‘Сидите там, не ходите там […] они же заминировали весь лагерь».1 (Russian original)
“Nobody woke us up in the morning, the dogs didn’t bark, there was no sound to be heard and everyone slowly lifted their heads, those who could still do so got up. Here they come, our rescuers. Oh, how many people’s lives it costs, because everyone rushes towards them [the soldiers]. And they shout: ‘Stay there, don’t move […] they’ve mined the whole camp.” (Translation of the Russian original)
