11109 Kalamalka Rd.
Vernon, BC
V1B 1L8
February 4, 1993

Dear William and Lily [Zuzak],

Thank you kindly for your letter and the copies of your letters to editors. I would like to draw your attention to one of your statements in the letter to Dvorkin [/fc/demjanjuk/crtc006.html] , which, in my opinion, is incorrect. [In section] 3, paragraph 2, you say, in effect, that the majority of Jews in Ukraine survived the German occupation thanks to help from the Ukrainian people. It might be true that the majority of Ukrainian Jews survived the war, because great numbers of them managed to evacuate before Germans took control, but I would think, that only a very small percentage, perhaps 4 to 5%, survived the German occupation owing to the help from Ukrainians.

In the first days of occupation, many Jews offered their services to Germans as interpreters, because Yiddish is actually a slang of German, and because traditionally they were always subservient to the mighty, be it Poles, Russians or Germans. This time the Germans were different from those of the past, and rejected their services. Most of the Jews were rounded up by Germans with cooperation from the Judenratten (Jewish councils) and only very few decided to take a chance disobeying German orders. Great majority of those did survive.

Nina did go to a medical school in Rostov on Don, a Russian city on the shores of the Azov Sea, not in Kharkiv, as you said in the letter. She might have said, that almost all male students were Jews, because they did have a way to escape military service and this did apply, not only to USSR, but also to Poland, where I grew up. I can't say anything definite about other Eastern-European countries, but I would suspect that the percentage of Jews in active military duty was always much lower than the percentage of Jews in the total population of a given country. That is why I was very surprised to see them so brave and dedicated soldiers in an Israeli army.

Nina's health is without much change, she is a little better, because she lost 45 pounds of weight, but her heart and arthritis are still a problem. I am going for an operation on my stomach. They found a malignant tumor in it and will attempt to cut it out. Hopefully, it is not spread too far; in that case, I might still be good for a few years. Otherwise, I might have to say goodbye soon.

Regards and best wishes from us both.

Ivan Shumuk

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