Don't Tell The Enemy by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's latest novel is based on the real life experiences of Kateryna Sikorska and her daughter Krystia during World War II. In the Author's note at the back of the novel, Forchuk Skrypuch writes that she was approached by Ukrainian-Canadian journalist and film maker Iryna Korpan and given a copy of a her documentary, She Paid the Ultimate Price which tells the story of her mother and grandmother's experiences in the Ukraine during World War II. Korpan encouraged Forchuk Skrypuch to write a book about these experiences. Don't Tell The Enemy is that book.

The novel opens on June 28, 1941 and is set in the fictional town of Viteretz, Ukraine. The town of four thousand souls has about eight hundred Ukrainians, the rest being split between Polish and Jewish. The Soviets who have occupied the town for the past two years, are fleeing eastward ahead of the advancing Nazis. As they leave, the civilians are being shot and the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) are rounding up and shooting educated Ukrainians and stealing whatever they can.

Krystia Fediuk, her younger sister Maria and their Mama are huddled in their home located across the street from the boarded up St. Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Church, listening to explosions and gunfire. In the morning Krystia warily enters their cowshed  to investigate the noises she heard during the night only to discover her cousin Josip hiding in the loft. He is on his way to a refuge in the forest where he hopes his brother Borys has gone. Their father and mother, Krystia's Uncle Roman and Auntie Iryna remain in town.

While taking their cow Krasa out to pasture, Krystia encounters Uncle Roman also walking his cow Lysa to the fields. He tells Krystia to wait for him so they can walk back to town together, but when he doesn't return, Krystia becomes concerned. It is her Jewish friend, Dolik Kitai who finds Uncle Roman shot dead in field by the retreating Soviets.

By the first of July 1941, the Germans arrive in Viteretz, as liberators who appear benevolent, providing soup for the townspeople and allowing the Catholic church to open again. At the same time, the Ukrainians announce their independence as a free country from the state radio in Lviv. Krystia's family along with their neighbours, Mr. Kitai and his wife Dr. Mina, Mr. and Mrs. Segal, and Uncle Ivan cautiously celebrate. But as the days pass, and the Germans settle into the abandoned homes and German refugees begin flooding the town Krystia and her family and friends become uneasy. The initial jubilation at being liberated from the Soviets  quickly turns to unease and then horror as the Nazis gradually reveal their true intentions. The Nazis move quickly from dishing out free soup to creating lists of Jewish citizens, to cold blooded murder.

The Jews are blamed for the murders of Ukrainians in the jail in Velicky Selo despite a German soldier acknowledging that this was the work of the Soviets. Commandant Hermann states, "These Jew are guilty of torturing, mutilating and killing the hundreds of men that we found in the prison at Velicky Selo." One hundred Jewish men are summarily executed and dumped in a mass grave. 

Krystia goes to the Jewish cemetery to see what really happened. There she discovers the awful truth: "The victims marched to the edge of the ditch and then ordered to remove their clothing. They were shot, and fell into the ditch, and dirt was shovelled over them." Krystia is horrified over the victims being forced to strip so their clothing is not damaged and the German civilians calmly sorting through the clothing of the murdered men. Later on two of the Germans Frau Schneider and her daughter Magda are seen wearing clothing from the murdered Jews. "My stomach did a lurch as I stepped in and realized what these two were dressed in. Marga wore the baker's white trousers and shirt. Frau Schneider wore the dogcatcher's grey shirt and brown trousers. Looking at them made me think of vultures, picking at scraps from the dead."

For Krystia, her family and neighbors this is the beginning of the terror living under the control of the Nazis. Homes and food are confiscated, more men murdered, the Jewish citizens identified and then forced into a ghetto. But Krystia and her family are determined to help and resist in any way they can. When a neighbor begs them for help, Krystia and her mother make a decision that has deadly consequences for all involved.

Discussion

Don't Tell The Enemy is another excellent. well-written novel from Canadian award-winning author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. This novel focuses on the life in one small town in the Ukraine during World War II. Similar events to those portrayed in the novel in the fictional town of Viteretz, occurred throughout the Ukraine, as evidenced by the existence of many mass graves throughout the country.It is believed that there are more than 700 mass graves scattered throughout the Ukraine. Over 1 millions Jewish Ukrainians were murdered by the Nazis during their occupation of the country.

The story is told through the eyes of fourteen year old Krystia who is based on Krystia Sikorska, who was a mere eight years old in 1941 and who survived the war and now lives in Canada. Don't Tell The Enemy is a fictionalized account of some of what Krystia lived through and as Forchuk Skrypuch states in her Author's Note, many of the characters in the novel were real people.

Don't Tell The Enemy captures the brutality and the terror that existed for the Ukrainians, Polish and Jews who lived under Nazi occupation. Forchuk Skrypuch doesn't spare young readers any of the details of life during this time. The novel describes several mass murders, the forcing of Jews into a ghetto with the ultimate goal of murdering everyone, the terrible risks and courage of those in the resistance, and the dignified behaviour of the Jewish people even when they were brutally mistreated.

Also captured is the disconnected behaviour of Nazis who live what seems to be cultured lives while either actively participating in or at least being aware of the atrocities occuring. For example, when Krystia makes milk deliveries to Frau and Herr Lange who live in the Kitais' confiscated home and are expecting a baby, she notes the beautiful cherrywood bassinet in the nursery and wonders "...where it had come from. Were the old owners now in a slave camp or ghetto? Or had they already been killed? Frau Lange seemed cheerful and oblivious...How could they seem so normal, even almost nice, yet live like vultures -- benefiting from the destruction of others."

As the Nazis strip the Jewish people of their rights, their homes and their dignity, Krystia becomes determined to resist in any way possible. She is portrayed as a courageous, intelligent girl determined to do the right thing, even in the face of deadly consequences to herself and what remains of her family. She sees these acts as ones of defiance in the midst of a town now filled with enemies. At considerable risk, Krystia and her mother choose to hide three Jews under the floor of their home. Krystia secrets food and medicine into the Jewish ghetto and helps Mr. Segal forge papers to be used to help Jews escape. The penalty is death for any of these actions.

Although the village of Viteretz is fictional, a map locating the Ukraine in relation to the Soviet Union and Germany in 1941 would be helpful for younger readers.

Don't Tell The Enemy is another well-written, informative novel about little known events during World War II, events that should never be forgotten. This novel, brings those events to light for yet another generation of young people, ensuring that both the good and evil acts of this time will be remembered and the people who died will not be forgotten.

Readers wishing to learn more about the Ukrainian Holocaust are encouraged to check out the following:
 Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies website
The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine which also has an article on Nazi War Crimes in Ukraine.


I've included a clip from the documentary, She Paid The Ultimate Price by Iryna Korpan about her mother Kateryna Sikorska who was hanged for hiding her Jewish neighbours.



Book Details:

Don't Tell The Enemy by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Toronto: Scholastic Canada Ltd.    2018
184 pp.