Photo description:
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Passages feature on Olena Hryn. Photo of her at age 26yrs in her passport from 1948. Olena Hryn witnessed some of the most harrowing ordeals of the 20th century. Olena survived both the Soviet and Nazi occupations of her Ukrainian homeland, the Holodomor and the break-up of her family. Her father was a cleric forced into hiding. Her mother had to leave her in the care of relatives the worst winter of the famine--- in order to avoid being dragooned into Russian brigands that raided Ukrainian farms for their grain stores. After the Second World War she as a refugee in a displaced persons camp. The Allies opened up local universities to refugees and Olena was finishing up her medical degree at a German university when she suddenly got a shot to come to Canada. Her daughter, Mariika Hryn, sets out photos and memorabilia on table in her St. Vital home. See Alex Paul story May 10, 2018
