My most recent experience in NYC was in the summer of 2012. I was doing the “touristy” thing with my cousins, aunt & uncle. We only had a quick weekend before our trip to Europe so crammed a few things in before we went overseas.
We went to Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and, of course, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Ellis Island is my favorite place to visit because that was where my grandparents went when they first came to America. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to meet them because my grandpa died when my dad was four and his mom died when he was twenty.
In the early 1950’s my grandparents, Igor & Nina Kubik made it to America from Europe. They were both taken from their homes in what is now Ukraine as teenagers during WWII. They had survived through the horrible famine as kids and did not have an easy life.
My uncle Victor has put together a website that has a lot of our family history.
- My sister, Heather, wrote this up when she was just ten years old about the courage of our grandma, Nina Kubik.
- My uncle Victor (my dad’s older brother) wrote about my grandparent’s capture and escape as prisoners of war and in the end becoming U.S. citizens.
- Victor also wrote about a letter he found from Igor (my grandfather) when he was about to leave Germany and make his way over to the states.
- My uncle Oleh (dad’s other older brother) wrote about a memory my grandpa had in receiving a Hershey’s bar from an American soldier while a refugee.
- Oleh also wrote briefly about the fact that after the war my grandparents had no chance of survival if they went back to Ukraine.
- This is an article in which my grandma Nina was interviewed about the Ukrainian forced famine of the 1930’s.
I am so grateful to have grandparents who were so courageous and through their hardship were able to make it over to America to give their children a better life.
- Nina, Igor, uncle Victor
