Searching the fate of my mother and grandparents from Kiev

Dear all

I am searching for my Ukrainian family. My mother Irene was born on 17 April 1928 in an unknown place. She died in 2015. She has always hidden her true identity. Recently I have discovered that she lived until May 1942 on Poltavska street (вулиця Полтавська) 3 or 4 in Kiev. She was with a woman called Anna Meijer born in Nackeln (Germany) on 25 September 1882. My mother used to tell me the name of her mother was Regine. She was in the school administration. She was shot dead in the woods around 1939. My mother was probably deported to Germany in 1942. She arrived in The Netherlands in 1945 without papers. I do not have any reliable family names.

The houses of Poltavska street (вулиця Полтавська) 3 and 4 existed in the 1930s. House number 3 was demolished in the 1960s and house number 4 in 1985. In the 1915 address book the inhabitant at number 3 was гдеВладимир Николаевич Янжу. Іван Іванович Щіткі́вський, Олександр Черняхівський, Людмили Старицької-Черняхівської and Вероніки Черняхівської lived on number 4 in the beginning of the 20th century. But who lived on Poltavska street (вулиця Полтавська) 3 and 4 in Kiev in the 1930s? There are no house books of that period. Who knows if the families I mentioned still lived there in the 1930s? If they did, they may be my family. If they did not, who moved into the houses after these families left?

Who has information about Anna Meyer (or Meyer or Meyer) born in Nackeln (Germany) on 25 September 1882? I cannot find her anywhere.

Thank you, Cyrilla

Hello Cyrilla,

ok, that’s not so easy to solve, but I think there might be some points to check in order to get more informations.
From my reasearch I know that a lot of people who left Russia for a lot of reasons have changed or „adapted“ their names. Some reasons are that some names are to complicated for they new home country, many changed their names to get allowance to stay in that country or to protect family members still living inside Russia. Strange nowadays but in that time it was quite common and most of the time quite easy….you have no documents and every new document will base on everything you told the issuer of the document.
Let’s go through your information you mentioned:
- where did you found the information about the place of residence in Kiev ? Any documents on that ?
You might get some additional information on that using the address books from that time:

http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/35089
(Ves Kiev 1926)

- regarding Anna Meyer: I suppose you know that the last name is one of the most common in Germany ? I am from Germany and it’s the biggest part of the phone book…
Maybe you will find some traces of her in the address books ?
By the way: I did not find any hints for a place called „Nackeln“ in historic Germany. Maybe it was only a problem of spoken and written place names ?

- deported to Germany:
If you have at least a guess on her last name you might find some traces in that online archive on deported people after WW2:

https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/search/

On what name she was register in the Netherlands in 1945 ? Maybe that will lead to some information ?

- maybe only a guess: But both names could (but not always must) lead to a German decent. Anna / Irene…. There have been a huge amount of people originating from Germany inside the former Russian empire….
Mostly they are Russian citizens but have german roots. That might be a second way to go on finding information.

- the picture you have added to your post. Is it your mother ? There did you find it ? Is it the name she was registered on in 1945 ?

If you can provide some answers to my maybe I can try to help you a little bit regarding further steps….

Best regards
Alex