Holocaust survivor, who evaded Nazi capture by hiding underground, died in 'unbearably cold' Mariupol basement amid Russian bombing, reports say
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Joshua Zitser
Apr 23, 2022, 17:40 IST
A picture of Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova.Chabad.org
Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, 91, died on April 4, according to Jewish News.
Her daughter said she spent weeks in an "unbearably cold" basement while Russia bombed Mariupol.
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A Ukrainian Holocaust survivor died in Mariupol after spending several weeks underground in an "unbearably cold" basement, according to Jewish News.
Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, 91, took cover under a heating supplies shop with her family as Russia relentlessly bombed her city, Jewish News reported.
She lived without heating, electricity, or running water, the media outlet said. "It was unbearably cold," her daughter Larissa told Chabad.org — the news website for the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.
Semyonovna Obiedkova became bedridden with sickness, per Jewish News, eventually succumbing to her illness on April 4.
"Mama didn't deserve such a death," Larissa said, per Chabad.org.
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The family buried Semyonovna Obiedkova in a local park before fleeing to a safe location, away from the constant bombing, Chabad.org said.
According to Larissa, her Holocaust survivor mother repeatedly asked her family: "Why is this happening?"
Over 21,000 people have so far been killed in Mariupol, Insider reported. Makeshift graves are filling the streets, the report said.
As bombs crashed above the family, Larissa said her Holocaust survivor mother spent her final days comparing her ordeal to what she had experienced during the Nazi occupation of Mariupol in 1941.
"Every time a bomb fell, the entire building shook," she recounted. "My mother kept saying she didn't remember anything like this during World War II."
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It wasn't Semyonovna Obiedkova's first time sheltering underground.
She evaded arrest during the Nazi occupation by hiding in a basement in 1941. Her mother was captured and was among the approximately 16,000 Jews who were executed on the outskirts of Mariupol, Chabad.org said.
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