How My Grandfather Stole a Shoe (And Survived the Holocaust in Ukraine)
During World War II, thousands of Moldovan Jews were imprisoned in the Obodovka ghetto, located in the Romanian-occupied part of Ukraine. Unlike the areas under German control where Jews faced systematic extermination, survival rates were marginally higher under Romanian occupation, as soldiers there did not pursue mass executions with bullets. Despite this, most of the ghetto's inhabitants succumbed to starvation and disease during the harsh first winter. Journalist Julie Masis captures this lesser-known chapter of the Holocaust through the memories of her grandfather Shlomo Masis, a survivor who lived to the remarkable age of 102. His recollections reveal stories of resilience, including how some Ukrainians aided the Jews in the ghetto. Masis also delves into a poignant family legend about a German medic who reportedly fell in love with her Jewish grandmother. This narrative sheds light on both the horrors and the unexpected human connections that emerged during one of history's darkest periods.
Julie Masis is the editor and publisher of the Russian Boston Gazette, a newspaper for Russian-speaking immigrants in Boston. She is also a freelance journalist who has written extensively about Jewish history. Her stories have been published in the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Montreal Gazette, The Globe and Mail, and in other newspapers and magazines. Other than journalism, she has also taught English to Buddhist monks in Cambodia, organized tours to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, and is currently learning to ice-skate.
