He experienced the horrors of war as an infant when he found himself in the hands of the infamous German doctor Josef Mengele in the Auschwitz Birkenau hell camp and after miraculously escaping the evil experiments of the "angel of death", today she boldly declares from her apartment in besieged Kiev that, having managed to survive Adolf Hitler, she will also survive Vladimir Putin.
The story of Holocaust survivor Anna Strishkova, who lives in the Ukrainian capital with her daughter, is brought to the Athens/Macedonian News Agency by the German (Italian-born) photographer Luigi Toscano, who met her nine years ago, photographing her for his project "Lest we forget", in which he captured the faces of 400 Holocaust survivors travelling from the USA, Germany and the Netherlands to Israel, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
Since then, Luigi Toscano has maintained close contact with Anna Striskova, even preparing a documentary about her life. With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, he tried to convince her to leave the country, with his help, to find a safe haven. But her response to his every plea is unwaveringly the same: 'if I managed to survive Hiller, I will survive Putin. We will win!"
"I have too many contacts and I could have ensured her escape from the very first moment - long before things took the turn they have taken - by bringing her to the Polish border. She, however, stubbornly refuses. Both she and her daughter, who lives with her and looks after her. I think it is a mixture of patriotism and fear that she feels, and as she has learned to face her fears, she has chosen to stay there. She keeps saying to me, "Luigi, we're going to win. I have nothing to lose," the German photographer tells APE-MPA.
"You look fear in the eye."
Luigi Toscano remembers their first contact for his project as if it were today. "It was an exciting first meeting. She was very open and told me about her life. She was only one and a half years old when she was taken with her parents to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where her mother and father were immediately executed by the Nazis and she found herself in the hands of the notorious Mengele," the well-known photographer recalls and explains that the only information he managed to find in the archives about her family is that she was sent to Auschwitz with her parents from Minsk and that she is the only survivor of the family.
Anna Striskova was miraculously rescued and later adopted by a Ukrainian couple. Growing up, she tried to exorcise the fear of doctors that had nested in her soul by studying medicine herself. "She was very young, but the pain was so strong when they gave her little hand the (prisoner's) number or later what she experienced at the hands of Mengele," says L. Toscano, who learned a very important life lesson from his friend.
"Anna is an amazing person. She taught me a lot about fear. She told me, Luigi, if you're afraid of something you shouldn't run away from it, but go towards it. She told me that she was so afraid of doctors after the traumatic experience she had as a child and the only way she found to exorcise her fears and face her nightmares was to become a doctor herself," the German photographer notes, explaining that it was the wound in her soul that, growing up, she tried to find ways to heal.
"She is so calm and at the same time so strong. Every day I communicate with her through messages and try to talk her down, and she thanks me for caring, but she insists on staying in her home country. She keeps telling me that this communication is the best support for her and her daughter, and when I say "the Russians are coming", she answers me calmly: "I know, don't worry". She is so courageous and I am so weak in the face of this greatness of soul that she displays...", says L. Toscano, with emotion evident in his voice.
The last time they met in person was a few months ago, when the German photographer travelled to Ukraine for the purposes of the documentary he is preparing. "I am not very religious but every night I pray for her and her daughter, that they are safe," says the German photographer who makes no secret of his sadness and anxiety about everything that is happening in Ukraine. "When you see the images on TV, it's a very strange feeling," he stresses."
Source: APE-MPA
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