Video History Archives
Of Jewish Soviet Soldiers
during WW2
“We worked all morning to evening. All the patients were seriously injured”
Nurse in Field Hospital – with 2nd Bellorusian Front, Germany, Japan.
Sima arrived at The 3rd Belorussian Front in 1943. Staying just a few kilometers behind the soldiers, Sima and the rest of the medical staff were under fire on a regular basis:
“We were bombed and fired at. Many nurses were killed. Medical staff air raid, it was so scary. We were saving the wounded soldiers all the same.”
Sima stayed with the soldiers for the rest of the war, reaching Berlin in 1945.
After the war in Europe, Sima was transferred to North Korea. Stationed primarily in Pyongyang, where she treated Japanese POWs in addition to Soviet soldiers: “Many Japanese soldiers were captured. They got a treatment which was better than the one our soldiers got [Soviets captured by Japanese]”
Sima was demobilized late in 1946. She worked in a bone tuberculosis clinic for 30 years before immigrating to Canada.
Born: 1921, Leningrad. Passed Away: September 12th, 2011 Toronto, Ontario.
Interviewed In: Toronto, Ontario
Medals Awarded: Medal for Defense of Leningrad
Born 1924 Minsk, Belarus
Interviewed In: Calgary, Alberta
Medals Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War (1st and 2nd Class), Medal For Defense of Stalingrad and Victory over Germany In The Great Patriotic War
Born September 6th 1925 in Kiev, Ukraine
Interviewed In: Toronto, Ontario
Medals Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War (1st and 2nd Class) and Victory over Germany In The Great Patriotic War