(Translated from "Novi Vestnik" by Carl)
"Dimitry, was ist dass?"
Dmitriy Trofimovich Chirov speaks of his life easily and with wit, as if he was not recalling his own past, but telling about an amusing book. Although... it really is a book. A year ago the recollections of this Karaganda retiree were set to print in Austria, in the German language.
In Dmitriy's past there is everything: a guardian angel who saved the Karagandan's life, fascists who took him prisoner, Austrians for whom our countryman worked during captivity, and whom he befriended to this very day.
Do you believe it?
Dmitriy Trofimovich (Chirov) looks pretty good for his 83 years - not a day over 75. This retiree with his crafty smile and thick, full beard had been answering our questions for several hours. At just the right moment, he pulled out a fat album with his photographic archives, as well as newspapers and books to confirm his story. Ever more frequently, he used the word 'lucky'.
The story of Karaganda resident Valentina Grigor'evna Mikhno, who was born in a German concentration camp in 1945, is similar to a scene from a Soviet war film, but with a very touching ending. An ending which in a real life has yet to be. Still, Valentina hopes and waits for it. Through the television program Zhdi menya ("wait for me"), the Karaganda resident is searching for a female Soviet spy who was working right under the very noses of the Germans. She wants to meet her so that she could bow low before the person who helped a newborn girl survive German captivity..