Survivor Profiles: Gdalina (Lin) Novitsky
I feel strongly that I have a moral obligation to six million Jews, my grandma and other relatives, to tell people our story, in order to not forget the Holocaust.
Gdalina (Lin) Novitsky
Her Story:
Gdalina (Lin) Novitsky was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. Operation Barbarossa began just after her 3rd birthday, and her father left to fight with the Red Army. Lin’s mother fled with her to the east, eventually to Kazakstan; Lin’s grandparents, who were too ill to travel, stayed behind in their apartment in Kyiv. Lin’s father survived and rejoined the family, and they returned to Kyiv. Once there, they learned that neither of her grandparents had survived—her grandfather died of illness, while her grandmother was taken from the apartment, shot in the street, and buried at Babiy Yar.
Lin and her family experienced antisemitism in the post-war Soviet Union, which limited their educational and career opportunities. Lin and her husband came to the US in 1979, settling first in New Jersey before coming to Chicago.
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Coffee with a survivor facebook live session Washington Post articlePhoto credits: John Pregulman