We ate hedgehogs, leaves and grass. I wouldn’t wish hunger on my worst enemy

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Poldina Semančinová (née Pirklová) was born in southern Ukraine on 7 January 1927. Her parents František and Kristýna Pirkls owned a large farm in Chekhohrad (Novhorodkivka) near Melitopol. Her father was exiled to the Gulag as part of the forced collectivisation of the village and the farm was confiscated. In the 1930s, the mother and children experienced famine. The family subsisted as best they could. The father returned after three years and the family lived in Melitopol. The father joined General Svoboda’s army corps during World War II and stayed in Czechoslovakia after the war. He acquired a house in Hodonice in the Znojmo region after deported Germans. His wife and two daughters were only allowed to move in with him in 1953. Poldina stayed in western Ukraine and married Slovak Michal Semančin. Four children were born to them, and they were not able to move to Czechoslovak region of Znojmo to join their family until 1966. She and her sister visited Ukraine several times in the 1970s and 1980s. She describes the hardships associated with this. In 2024 she lived with her daughter in Znojmo.