Victor Gurovich

This is my father, Victor Gurovich, during the Great Patriotic War. This photo was taken in 1942.

In spring 1941 my father got another job assignment: he was to take the position of chief accountant at the sovkhoz called Peremoga in Razdelnaya district near Odessa. The director of this sovkhoz was Nord, a German man. He became a friend of our family almost immediately after we moved to the village. In the morning of 22nd June 1941 we were sitting at his home and the radio constantly repeated: ‘Listen to an important announcement at 12 o’clock.’ Then the radio announced that a war with Germany had begun. The director of the sovkhoz was taken away on that same day since he was German. My father received his summons to the front.

When the Great Patriotic War began my father received his summons to the front.
We kept in touch with the father by post. My father was financial officer of a division. The war ended for him in Vienna. He was in the rank of lieutenant colonel when the war ended. He was awarded an Order of the Red Star. In 1945 my father worked in the maintenance battalion at an aerodrome, 18 kilometers from Vienna. We joined him there. We went by train. We lived at this location from 1945 to 1947.