An image by Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova.Chabad.org
Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, 91, died on April 4, according to Jewish News.
Her daughter said she spent weeks in an “unbearably cold” basement while Russia bombed Mariupol.
As a child, Obiedkova also hid in a basement during the Nazi conquest of Ukraine in 1941.
A Ukrainian Holocaust survivor died in Mariupol after spending several weeks in an “unbearably cold” underground basement, according to Jewish News.
Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, 91, was taking cover under a heating store with her family as Russia relentlessly bombed her town, Jewish News reported.
She lived without heating, electricity or running water, the media outlet said. “It was unbearably cold,” her daughter Larissa told Chabad.org – the news website of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.
Semyonovna Obiedkova fell ill, according to Jewish News, and eventually succumbed to her illness on April 4.
“Mom didn’t deserve a death like this,” Larissa said, per Chabad.org.
The family buried Semyonovna Obiedkova in a local park before fleeing to a safe place away from the constant bombing, Chabad.org said.
According to Larissa, her mother, who survived the Holocaust, repeatedly asked her family, “Why is this happening?”
A building damaged during fighting is seen in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 13, 2022. Alexei Alexandrov/AP Photo
Insiders reported that over 21,000 people have been killed in Mariupol so far. Makeshift graves fill the streets, the report said.
As bombs fell on the family, Larissa said her mother, a Holocaust survivor, spent her final days comparing her ordeal to what she experienced during the Nazi occupation of Mariupol in 1941.
Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, as a child, with her parents.Chabad.org
“Every time a bomb fell, the whole building would shake,” she said. “My mother kept saying that she couldn’t remember anything like that during the Second World War.”
It was not the first time that Semyonovna Obiedkova took shelter underground.
She evaded arrest during the Nazi occupation by hiding in a basement in 1941. Her mother was captured and was among about 16,000 Jews executed on the outskirts of Mariupol, Chabad.org said.
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