After Hitler invaded Poland, my relatives were transported to Germany as forced labourers. As described in this article, conditions in the labour camp were atrocious, death from typhus and starvation was very common.

Several years ago, I visited the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria, which had an exhibition in memory of Eastern European forced labourers. I read that official Nazi policy stated that pregnant women and children were not meant to be used as forced labourers - but of course, they did not live up their word.

Thank you for writing this story Oksana, I will share it with my family.