The Nazi destruction machine sentenced her to death. It has passed the path that for many thousands has become a way to one side. But she managed to return from man-made hell to look into the eyes of the executioners and testify against them.
"It's no wonder I fell in love with a Russian guy"
"I grew up in a poor Jewish family, grew up under Soviet rule, was brought up in the spirit of internationalism, so it is not surprising that I fell in love with the Russian guy Vitya Pronichev,"reads her memoirs, which are kept in the archives of the Yad Vashem memorial.
Dina was born in 1911 in Chernigov and in her youth moved with her family to Kiev. She was in her early 20s when she married Viktor Pronichev. So she from Dina Mstislavskaya became Dina Pronicheva.
She worked in the Kiev Central Puppet Theatre, gave joy to adults and children. In their cheerful and friendly family about the bad did not think about the bad.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Victor went to the front. He returned to the city after Kiev was captured by the Germans. Then he was just lucky: at first, the Nazis, who were surrounded by the locals, were released to their homes.
In the city reigned confusion and tension: what will happen next, few people understood.
The road to "relocation"
Dina Pronicheva lived with her husband, children and mother-in-law on Vorovsky Street. Turgenevskaya was home to her parents and sister.
On September 27, Kiev began to put up an order of the German command, ordering on September 29 the Jewish population of the city to appear at the designated collection point with documents and valuables by 8 a.m. For failure to comply with the order was supposed to be a firing squad.
On September 28, Dina went to her parents, who asked her not to leave them until it was clear where they were being resettled.
In the morning she and her family joined an endless string of people walking towards Degtyarevskaya Street.
Those who watched the procession, standing on the sidewalks, sometimes dared to shout: "You will be shot!" But from the crowd there was a reply: "Who will fight with women and old people?"
Before approaching the fence of the old Jewish cemetery, Dina also did not believe that they were being led to death. But there began anti-tank hedgehogs and wire barrage. The people who crossed this border were not allowed back. Only empty carts, on which people carried things taken for "relocation" were left.
Death pipeline
Fifty meters after the beginning of this corridor, those who came were ordered to hand over their valuables and products, and then they were taken off their outer clothes. The people who were confused were severely beaten. Then people were driven to the playground, where they were stripped naked. They were then sent to ravines, where shots were fired.
When those who came realized that they had only a few minutes to live, it was no longer possible to break out of the trap.
Under the blows of batons of police, Dina lost her family. And suddenly from afar my mother's voice rang out: "Daughter, you do not look like, save!"
Dina knew what her mother wanted to say. The name of her husband in the documents and not the brightest appearance left the woman a chance. Her heart was bursting with pain, but her children were waiting for her at home, and for their sake it was necessary to fight for life.
Dinh managed to stealthily break the passport, which indicated the nationality, and then with a trade union ticket and a work book in her hands, she began to shout in Ukrainian to be escorted to the commandant. When Dina was asked what she needed, she said she was not Jewish and came here by mistake, seeing off her co-workers.
The German, looking through her documents, thought, but one of the Ukrainian policemen shouted: "Don't believe her, she is Jewish, we know." Hitler shrugged off and ordered Dina to step aside, sit on the ground and wait for the evening.
"Shoot everyone!"
There were about thirty people like her. All day long they had to watch people being taken away to kill.
In front of Dina, a young mother, naked naked, breastfed her baby. The policeman who came to snatch the child from her hands and threw it into the pit alive. His mother lunged after him, and the policeman shot her in the back.
When people understood what was waiting for them, not everyone could stand, for minutes went crazy. Dina, looking at this endless death stream, waited for her fate.
In the evening there was an important German rank, who asked what people were sitting on the sidelines. Upon learning that it was about those who came here by accident, he said: "Shoot everyone, otherwise they will tell about everything in the city!"
They were driven to the edge of the cliff. When it was her turn, Dina rushed down a moment before the shot. Having fallen on the corpses of those shot before, she pretended to be dead. Soon the Nazis and the police began to bypass the lying to finish off those who were still alive. The German machine gunman approached Dina, hit her with the toe of her boot, stepped on her chest, and then on her wrist. The woman continued to lie still. After that, the German left.
"Here, mr. officer, Jewish!"
From above, the command followed: "Sleep!" Dina lay face up, and the sand began to make it difficult for her to breathe. She struggled, but when she felt choking, she decided it was better to die from a bullet than to choke.
Dina began to dig up, expecting that she was about to be discovered. But the police and the Germans were no longer there.
She was trying to get out when she was called out by a child's voice. The child, miraculously survived, like Dina, asked not to leave him. Together before dawn they were looking for a way out, but they failed. Hiding, they decided to wait the day. Again she heard gunshots and death screams of people.
On the second night, the boy who was with her came across the police and he was shot. Dina escaped death again.
On the third day she managed to get out of Babi Yar. She asked for help at the local resident's house without telling her where she was actually coming from. She made her feel welcome, but, as it turned out, discreetly sent her son to the Germans. Soon there was a Hitler, to whom the Ukrainian gleefully said: "Here, mr. officer, Jewish!"
Under the name of Nadiya Savchenko
Dean was sent back to the scene of the shootings. The Nazis, for whom executions have become routine, have weakened their vigilance. She and the other women were put in a car and taken somewhere. Together with the girl inside, they decided to jump off at the right time.
The driver didn't notice their jump. Surrounding Dina explained that the German driver who took a ride refused to stop for her, so had to jump. After that, she managed to escape.
It was impossible to go home. Together with a new girlfriend, they hid in a dilapidated factory. One day the Germans came there together with the engineer of the enterprise. Dean was noticed, but the engineer, having recognized, mistook her for a factory worker. Naturally, the woman did not convince him. Dinah was placed in an army barracks as she explained that her own house had been destroyed. Through new friends at the company, she was able to get new documents in the name of Nadiya Savchenko.
"Come out! Or shoot him!"
Her life in occupied Kiev was full of trials. Dina's brother, a Red Army soldier who escaped from captivity and returned home, was given to the Germans by neighbors. The guy was shot.
Dean herself, who once came to a friend, noticed the same traitors. And they reported it to the Germans. The Nazis arrived, believing that the woman was hiding somewhere in the house, dragged her two-year-old son out into the street and shouted, "We know you're here! Go out! Or shoot him!"
Dean was not released by the same friend to whom she came. "You can't save yourself or save him," she said. The Germans, realizing that their trick failed, shot the boy with an assault rifle over the head and left, giving the child to the Ukrainian police. And they, fortunately, were corrupt: Dina's friends bought the boy for a gold ring.
Victor Pronichev was taken to the Gestapo in 1942. He was suspected of collaborating with the underground, demanded to tell where his wife was hiding. Not having achieved any confessions, the man was shot.
When kiev became quite dangerous, Dina managed to make a pass and get out of the city, joining the troupe of the traveling theater. Grigory Afanasiev, one of his artists, lost his wife and son: they were executed by the Nazis. He took Dean into care, taking care of her.
"I blame!"
The nightmare of occupation for Kiev ended in November 1943. When the Nazis were driven even further west, Dina Pronicheva began the search for her daughter and son. And in March 1944 she found Lida in orphanages, and then Volodya.
In 1945, Dina Pronicheva married Afanasiev.
In January 1946, the trial of Hitler's criminals, who were accused of committing atrocities in the territory of the Ukrainian USSR, took place in Kiev.
Among the prosecution witnesses was Dina Pronicheva, one of the few survivors in Babi Yar. Her testimony left no doubt as to the sentence the defendants deserved.
On January 28, 1946, the presiding judge, Colonel Terenty Sytenko, announced the verdict that 12 Hitler's executioners had been sentenced to death by hanging. The following day, in the presence of 200,000 people, the sentence was carried out.
Two decades later, in The City of Darmstadt, a case was brought against former German servicemen suspected of involvement in the Babi Yar massacre. The defense of the accused was not satisfied with the written testimony, and Dina Pronicheva went to West Germany in person.
And there in the courtroom she met with the same German officer, who sent her to the firing squad to hide the secret of mass executions. The handsome German believed that the past would not catch up with him. But he came after him in the form of a woman who returned from hell, created by the hands of men.
Humane German justice of the gallows did not envisage, but the stigma of the murderer and the prison term of the Hitler, thanks to the testimony of Dina Pronicheva, received.
https://aif.ru/society/history/svidetel_pronicheva..._kotoraya_vyzhila_v_babem_yaru
