Holmes woman takes stock of Ukrainian heritage through words and memories of her father

While the letter she sent to Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschchev seeking permission for her grandparents to leave the Ukraine for America some 65 years ago never achieved its goal, a Holmes County doctor feels it is important to remember her heritage, especially today as the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia is well into its second year.

Claudia Rozuk, a radiologist at Pomerene Hospital in Millersburg, has found some fascinating family history that has of caught the interest of an archivist.

When Rozuk was a second-grader at St. Nicholas School in Buffalo, New York, she sent her request, written in Ukrainian, asking Krushchev to allow her grandparents to come and live with her family so she could have grandparents like other American children.

The novelty of her letter caught the attention of the local newspaper, and an article about her petition to the soviet premier appeared in the Buffalo News in December 1959.

Her grandfather, Martyn, died in 1970, never making it to America, but her grandmother, Maria, eventually did after his death.

Finding family history

She recalled how her parents, George and Marie, met in Germany after World War II, and they went to Australia to be homesteaders. That is where Rozuk was born.

"Australia wasn't exactly what my parents thought it would be, so they decided to come to the United States," Rozuk said. "Their sponsors were in Buffalo, and that's how we ended up there. I lived in Buffalo until I went to medical school at Loma Linda University in California. I did residency in Cleveland at University Hospital, and that's how I ended up in Ohio."

Rozuk and her four grown daughters − Eva, Lexi, Tatiana and Stasi − found an editor, Kenny Chumbley, in Illinois, who works with World War II programs, documents and museums, and he edited the 70-some pages of notes they had gathered from her father's life. They also put together a book of old photos from her father's life in the Ukraine.

"My kids had gotten recordings from my dad, a sort of a history of what it was like during the war and how it affected his life and what happened to him," Rozuk said. "Toward the end of his life he recorded a lot, but it was in Ukrainian. I suspect there is more detail that wasn't included in the English version we got. Both of my parents, like everyone over there, had tough lives during the war."

Eva Durbin, Rozuk's oldest daughter who also is a radiologist at Pomerene Hospital, recalled how for a few years she would call her grandfather every Friday. After listening to some of his stories, she decided to begin recording their conversations.

"I was telling my husband I had no idea my grandfather went through such an ordeal during the war," Durbin said. "It seemed like movie material, as he talked about holding onto a ladder outside on a train, wearing a lightweight fall jacket and cap, fleeing from Russian-occupied territory, trying to get to U.S. occupied Germany. My husband said I should write these stories down. So when I called him on Friday nights, I recorded his stories, and then I would transcribe what had told me."

Durbin said her grandfather was 93 when she started her weekly calls, and it went on for three years.

"His mind was still sharp," she said. "He would tell me the days, like Christmas Eve, and from what city to what city he went, and even though I heard the same stories multiple times, the details were always the same. When I wrote down the details and would look at a map, I could track his progress across Germany."

A story worth remembering

Chumbley said museums appreciate having archived personal accounts of family history that can be useful for research.

"Claudia’s story was not uncommon for thousands baby boomers who came out of the Cold War, but it is one worth remembering," Chumbley said. "Her family epitomized the firm determination needed to survive the terrors of a world war. Dreams may have been shattered, but the dreamers − in this case, George, Marie, and Claudia Rozuk — were too enduring to be broken by the madness of the times."

He noted how George and Marie Rozuk petitioned the Russian Embassy, Eleanor Roosevelt and even tried to see Krushchev on his visit to the U.S. in Pittsburgh in the 1950s in an effort to allow George's parents passage to America, but to no avail. That is when Claudia's mother encouraged her to write her letter to the premier.

"Even with promises of surrendering their land if they didn't return, they could never get visas," Rozuk said. "America wouldn't issue visas, and under communism, they wouldn't let them leave."

Rozuk said her mother was from the Czech Republic, and she plans to visit there in the near future in an attempt to find more details on her history.

Sending help to relatives in Ukraine

"I still have relatives there in Ukraine, in the small village of Kobylla where my dad was born and grew up," she said. "It's kind of off the beaten path, so they have been very lucky because they are out of the line of fire."

Some time back, her relatives asked for supplies like flashlights and long johns, which Rozuk provided. Later they requested a generator. Rozuk said it took about four months to get that to her relatives.

"One of our former exchange students helped me buy the generator, and then another former exchange students' family is where we had it delivered to," she said. "A family member who does business in Poland picked it up there and took it back to them, so they finally did get their generator."

National impact of war in Ukraine

A Reuters report says Russian forces have been making gradual progress in areas of the eastern front since the town of Avdiivka fell to Russian troops in February. They also launched a cross-border incursion into parts of northeastern Kharkiv region, though Ukraine says that advance has been stopped.

During his recent visit to Paris, U.S. President Joe Biden said if Vladimir Putin, president of Russia since 2012, succeeds in his war with Ukraine, he would not stop there.

"It’s about much more than Ukraine. All of Europe will be threatened, but we’re not going to let that happen," the president said, according to Reuters. "The United States is standing strong with Ukraine. We’re standing with our allies. And we’re standing with France."

Biden met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, apologizing for a months-long delay by the U.S. Congress in approving the latest military aid.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Holmes woman takes stock of Ukrainian heritage through words and memories of her father