Хабибул Муазович Эскерханов

„The starvation was freighting. I was only three years, but even after several years people told me that my little face looked like a face of an eighty years old man, for I had so many bruises from the hunger. People were eating grass, hedgehogs, or clover. They were all swollen from eating it. Often people died of starvation, or died of several diseases. But there was no way to bury them. Those, who were still alive, were not strong enough burry their loved ones. Right before our own eyes we could see how the bodies disintegrate. “

„Our father found us after three months and he took us to Zhambyl town. Zhambyl town is one of the cities in Kazakhstan. Our father was a lawyer and very educated man. Therefore he turned to the city administration and he got a job at the local police department. He was receiving the salary; he got an apartment but even then just as we survived. But then few months later an order from Stalin came that the refugees like we were must not be employed at the service of the Ministry of Internal affairs. Therefore our father wrote a letter addressed directly to him, saying that he wants a job. I remember that Stalin has even sent an answer to him; I remember his red colored signature. He explained in the letter that our father can’t get a job, because of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR bans, because the replaced people are not trustworthy enough. Our father later found himself a job as the head of the canteen. “

„We – all of my family members – packed our stuff and gathered in the middle of our village. All the village residents gathered on one place. Huge trucks were standing there. Later on I have found out that those were the American Studebacker cars. We all were seated inside. Those were some kind of the terrain vehicles. The noise from the cars was allover the village. Even the animals sensed that something was going on. The dogs were howling; cows were mooing, because they were not being milked and fed. The hens were clucking. What an awful sight…”