grandmother was from a small town in Russia about fifty
miles from Veliz, Inna’s grandmother’s home.
“Veliz was the town where a German SS Division
killed so many people, especially Jews during WWII…
They started to ‘practice’ genocide in Veliz in 1941. First
deal was to put about 300 Jews in an old pig house, keep
them in there for a week without water and food and then
burn people alive,” said Inna.
These were stories she learned in school, not at
home. But the few stories she does recall hearing in her
home are compelling. “My grandfather, Ivan Ulyanovich
Sladkevich, was a nobleman. His father died when my
grandfather was young. My grandfather had to help his
mother to run the family business and raise the younger
brothers during WWI. My grandfather had one older
brother, but he was an officer in the Army of the Russian
Tsar, involved in the war. That older brother ended as a
colonel. Under the threat of Bolsheviks, he agreed to work
with them and then was executed by Stalin's regime.
“When the communists came to power in 1917, they
came to my great-grandmother’s house. It was a very nice
house, the biggest house in town. They said, ‘Tomorrow
morning, you pick up and empty this house because we
want to have this house for our Communist meetings. She
said, ‘Where could I go?’ She had some children with her.
52 Toombs County Magazine
LEFT Inna and Darel enjoy visits
with her son's family including
grandchildren Vlad, Liliana and
Mathew. BELOW Inna with Darel's
granddaughter Grace.