WW 2 - Ukrainian point of view
... while in hunger, unsure of her future. She was put in an orphanage twice. Adolescence did not bring improvement in her situation. At the age of twelve her landlord raped her. "I had no idea that the human male becomes like an animal when he wants to have sex and that often he succeeds by force; that when a man's desire becomes very strong, the man becomes strong and dangerous," recalls Eugenia. At age fifteen, she got a job in a small theater, which was playing the Ukrainian opera, "Zaphrozhets Za Dunayem." Eugenia always thought she would like to do something artistic. But during the painful years of World War II, she witnessed the segregation of Jews and Gypsies, the poverty and numerous acts of violence on the streets aimed at unarmed civilians of occupied cities. Soon after she arrived in Crimea, working as a cleaner in a hospital, she was raped again. Her two attackers were Germans who managed the hospital. Then she spent two and a half years as a prisoner of war in Austria, working in industrial plants, literally under the bombs of the Allies. Somehow, she was able to escape Soviet agents and flee to Italy where she lived for six years as an illegal alien. She found a job as a model and created a new glamorous life for herself. She finally applied for a U.S. visa and was granted permission to come to America. Three days after arriving in New York, she started work as a fashion model. She spoke Ukrainian, Russian, German, French, Italian, but not English. As a result of her inability to communicate in English, she was fired and started looking for other jobs. In 1952, she went to Dallas to model for famous retail company Neiman Marcus. There she met a man with whom she fell in love. She really thought he would change her life for the better. She got married and had a son named Gene. For a while, she thought her life was perfect, but she soon found out that her husband had a drinking problem, so the marriage ended. This stressful period of her life brought about three open-heart surgeries. Doctors also linked Eugenia's heart problems to the rheumatic fever she suffered in her childhood. In 1962, Eugenia and her son moved to Los Angeles to recover from divorce and surgery. She again took up modeling, this time for Saks Fifth Avenue. Some time later Eugenia decided to go to Europe again. It was when she needed to take some time for herself. While in Europe, she met a Scotsman named Stewart who ...