Senator DeCONCINI: Thank you very much for your testimony. Dr. SAMILENKO-TSVETKOV: With the permission of the witness, I will read the testimony of Nadia Harmash.

TESTIMONY OF MS. NADU HARMASH OF SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

At the end of 1931 and throughout the year 1932, I resided in the city of Dnipropetrovsk. When I got married and my husband worked in the Verkho-dniprovsk region, I also had to take a steamboat to his place of residence along the river, especially in the summer.

Around this time, I noticed a great increase in the number of peasant people who
appeared poverty-stricken and emaciated. As time went on, more of these people
were everywhere, moving from the villages to the larger industrial cities of the country.

Meanwhile, strict rationing of food began in the cities. However, the supplies were
irregular, and I had to go to the market in order to supplement our meager rations.

Since I went to the market frequently, I witnessed the following events. It was early in the morning, and people were coming to the marketplace. Off to one side of the market plaza, there were three open-bed trucks onto which three men were throwing some kind of large objects.

When I came close, I saw that these were dead bodies, already frozen, for it was winter, and many of the hands and feet stuck out in opposite directions. There were more bodies near the walls of the market buildings. Some of them lay motionless; others moved a little.

The local people saw this, looked aside and quietly went away. I saw a similar sight somewhat later, several weeks after this. Also, along the streets of the city, I often saw similar trucks filled with uncovered bodies driving away somewhere.

Later in the spring, I had to be at a similar open market in the town. I witnessed how a mother left her children at this market. There was a little boy who looked about six, and a little girl who seemed younger, about four. They looked dried out, black and thin with very big eyes. They were crying and looking at their mother.

Their mother spoke rapidly and kept repeating, “Don’t cry, it will be better for you. They’ll take you to the orphanage and give you bread, and at home, you will die soon. If I stay alive, I will find you.”

Saying this very quickly, she ran off and disappeared into the crowd. The children started to cry and scream. People went past them. Maybe they will be taken to the or¬phanage, and maybe they will even survive.

One man said, I’m here at the market almost everyday, and when people leave the market, trucks come to pick up the dead and the abandoned children.”

Another episode from these years comes to mind. Residing for a certain period at the state farm where my husband worked, I was present in the mess hall where once each day, some kind of thin soup was given out to the workers on the farm.

This was after the food had already been given out A group of very thin people came into the empty mess hall By now, this type was very familiar. They were dirty, thin, exhausted, some were swollen and bloated.

They did not speak a word to each other. The kitchen window slammed shut, but suddenly I saw that the people were grabbing the rock salt and the bowls and devour-