Vanda Obiedkova survived the Nazis by hiding in a basement in Mariupol. 81 years later, she died in a basement in the same city hiding from Russians
Vanda Obiedkova was 10-yers-old when the Nazis entered Mariupol in October 1941. Germans took away her mother, but the little girl managed to evade arrest by hiding in a basement.
81 years later, Vanda had to hide in a basement again, but this time from Russians. From the first days of the full-scale war, Mariupol has been besieged by the Russian military. 95% of buildings were ruined by Russian shelling, thousands of people lost their homes and hid in basements with no food left, and there was no safe way to leave the city.
Vanda Obiedkova died on April 4, 2022, not peacefully of old age in her bed, but as a victim of the horrific 21st-century war that has engulfed her hometown, ChabadNews reported. As she lay dying in a Mariupol basement, freezing and pleading for water, Holocaust survivor Vanda Semenivna Obiedkova wanted to know only one thing — “Why is this happening?”
“Mama didn’t deserve such a death,” says Vanda’s daughter, Larisa, through tears. After her mother passed away, Larisa and her husband risked their lives to bury Obiedkova, amid non-stop shelling, in a public park less than a kilometer from the Azov Sea.
