VIDEO
Stefan Horlatsch, born Jan. 9, 1921 in Krylovka village, Zaporizhia Oblast, explains what he and his family ate during the Holodomor.
Actually the hardest period, it was the spring of ’32… of ’33. Until Christmas, I was going to school, but after that my mother didn’t let me go. First of all, I wasn’t physically strong enough to go, and secondly, there were no… I would say… How to say… They always were pointing fingers, son of kurkul, and so on. So I was staying at home. As soon as the spring start, we were looking for some kind of grass, some kind of birds nest, or even catching the birds somehow. To get something, on the table.
Acacia, when acacia leaves, they were edible, you can eat. But other trees were too harsh; they were too dry, sort of, you know. But an acacia, there was a, when flowering and that flower of it, oh yeah. That’s when we were already in that period, when acacia was blooming; it was the best food we ever had.
I don’t know what it depends from, some people were pukhli – bloated, and some people were drying out. There was just left, skin and bones. Even dying in that state. I didn’t know what… maybe from consumption of water; some people were drinking too much, maybe, you know. All the water was remaining in the body. But some… even people dead, I saw, some of them were bloated, but some of them really dried out, completely dried out.
