The Matryoshka Memoirs
A Story of Ukrainian Forced Labour, the Leica Camera Factory, and Nazi Resistance

Irina Kylynych arrives at a labor camp in Wetzlar Germany by train. It’s June 1942, and she has been taken from Ukraine to work at the Leica Camera Factory. The Eastern Workers, she is told upon arrival, are expected to work for the glory of Hitler and the German people. Those who do not work will b......more

This book evokes a wide range of responses and emotions. Yes, it is tragic but it also brings to life the happiness and hope of family and survival. It also features different perspectives and people, including those who played a role in resisting the Nazis, which is very interesting, it’s impossibl......more

The Matryoshka Memoirs by Sasha Colby is a beautiful and horrible look at one aspect of the Nazi use and abuse of undesirables and those they felt could be exploited. There are so many stories that have never been told and will never be told, lost to both the horrors of the time and the passing of m......more

Sasha Colby’s grandmother Irina insisted on making meat on a stick and vareniki for the family gathering even if her daughter planned to make lasagna. At these gatherings at Irina’s home in Niagara Falls, Canada, Colby probed her grandmother to tell her story, dragging it out in bits and pieces. Sas......more

While this is an interesting story and an interesting structural concept - 4 stories nested inside each other like matryoshka dolls (what I would have called Russian nesting dolls when I had them as a little girl), I do have some issues with it. Granted, my fundamental issue may just be “my” issue,......more