Family
 Ivan Kornelovich Skliar 1)Son of Kornel Prokofovich Skliar and N.N.. Born ± 1880 Hadyatskyi, Poltava, Ukraine 2) Died 1950 Ukraine, approximately 70 years 3) Military service: Junior Officer (Ensign) - White Russian army: taken prisoner of war by Bolsheviks *Romanian GPU". 1923 2) Notes: According to his grandson, Ivan Skliar had attended a seminary and trained to become a priest. He recalled him owning a large house and estate which he had visited on occasion during the 1930s, and that the house may have been on Klochkovka Road, in Kharkiv. Ivan was opposed to the Bolsheviks and served as a Junior Officer (Прапорщик) in the White Russian Movement. He was taken as prisoner of war by the Romny GPU in 1923. Married/ Related to: Children: 2. Victor Ivanovich Skliar 1) 4) 3) 5)Born 28 Jul 1899 Sakhnovshchyna, Kharkiv, Ukraine 1) 6) 3) Died 31 Mar 1964 London, England, 64 years 6) 3) Occupation: 1 Jan 1938 Sakhnovshchyna, Kharkiv, Ukraine; Book-keeper in a cooperative office 1) Residences: 6 Sep 1945 Eugenbach, Landshut, Bavaria, Germany 1), between 24 Jun and 1 Dec 1945 Eugenbach, Landshut, Bavaria, Germany 7) Departure: Left his home with his son Aug 1943 Sakhnovshchyna, Kharkiv, Ukraine 1) 3) Departure: Registered at AEF Assembly Center for English Labour Mission. Cancelled 31 March 1848 9 Feb 1948 Ganacker, Bavaria, Germany 8) Notes: Victor was born circa 1895-1899, on 28 June in Sakhnovschina, Kharkiv region - probably in the village of Dar-Nadezhda based on his German identity cards. Identifying his exact year of birth is problematic - as 1895, 1897 and 1899 all appear on official documents. Given the earliest surviving records - his membership card for the Flour Workers Trade Union (dated 1924), and his Soviet military billet papers (dated 1940) - both state 1899, and given that is also the date recalled by Lydia Skliar, it seems likeliest. Subsequent records including German ID cards, Displaced Person ID cards, and his UK passport all have earlier dates. Victor attended Poltava Orthodox Seminary, like his father, where, according to Wsewolod, he was in the same class as the famous Ukrainian general Simon Petliura. While this is impossible for chronological reasons - Petliura attended from 1895-1901 - it is possible that his father, Ivan, was in the same class. Wsewolod recalled that Victor joined Simon Petliura’s patriotic, pro-independence Ukrainian Army c1917, following the completion of his studies. He was subsequently employed in 1924 as an accountant/bookkeeper for a German business - probably involved in the flour production industry - based on his union membership card. A1943 German Security Pass/Identity card advised that Victor had been working as an accountant at a fruit and vegetable seller since 31 June 1941. His post-war "A.E.F. D.P. Registration Record" provides further information about him including his parents, and stated his occupation as a book-keeper in a cooperative office. Sometime, before 1923, Victor married, by arrangement, to Nadeska, from Kharkiv. The marriage had been arranged based on social status, as was common at the time. Victor had one son Nadeska; Vadim Skliar. This relationship ultimately failed; the lady’s family were very strong communist supporters whereas Victor and his family were Ukrainian Nationalists. Nadeska later remarried to a member of the Politburo and became headmistress at a local comprehensive school. Sometime before 1926, Victor and Nadeska divorced; Victor then remarried in 1926/7 to Evdokiya Musiyenko, probably of Sakhnovschina. Evdokiya’s surname was recorded as “Bondarenko” on various post-war ITS documents, but Wsewolod clearly recalled her surname as Musiyenko, and other documents confirm this too. With Evdokiya, Victor had one daughter, Xena who died due to malaria three months after birth, and one son, Wsewolod Skliar, born in 1928. When the Germans invaded Poltava during the Second World War, Wsewolod recalled Victor took up new employment, delivering food for the German army. By Ukrainians, given the Holodomor and other Soviet atrocities of the 1930s, the Germans were viewed as liberators freeing he Ukrainian people from the oppressive, communist, Soviet regime. During the War, Wsewolod believed Victor worked for the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), a patriotic liberation movement in the Ukraine. Family connections with Petliura and other dissident Ukrainians support this - as does Wsewolod’s active involvement in the OUN from 1947-1954 - and his possession of OUN documents from the 1940s including pamphlets, an early copy of “The Decalogue of the Ukrainian Nationalist” and drafts of speeches. While Victor received Soviet military call-up papers 11 November 1940, he did not enlist. It was in March 1943 that tragedy struck the family. Kharkiv, and the surrounding region was at that time was under German occupation, but was about to become the site of a fierce battle between the Soviets and the Germans. Before launching their offensive, the city faced aerial bombardment. Victor’s wife, Evdokiya, her two sisters (one of whom was Wsewolod’s godmother) and their two children were all killed. Wsewolod and Victor survived by chance; they were both out working in the fields at the time the bomb hit their home. At some time between March and June 1943, Victor, and a group of fellow employees made the decision to move West, to flee the advancing Soviet army, towards Austria by horse and cart. The likely date of their departure was 16th June 1943, based on the remnant of a German travel permit. Towards the start of their journey, their pet dog (Bantik) was killed as he was run over by their carriage. Wsewolod recalled that their journey took them through Poland and Romania before making it to Vienna, late 1943. He also recalled that the family’s possessions, other than the horse and cart, were stolen while they were asleep, at some point in Romania. Victor kept various travel permits, identity cards and passes from the trip, which can be used to piece together some of the journey. Their initial direction is likely to have been Dubrivka, Sambir, near Lviv in the Galizien area of Western Ukraine. Various documents (e.g. Displaced Person camp registers and identity cards) attest that as their last residence in Ukraine, and it was an area with significant OUN activity/presence. A German security pass, dated 4 April 1944, issued by Germany Army Group south based out of Lviv gives Victor permission to work in Drohobych, a town to the South West of Sambir. Some time between April and October 1944, the remnant of a German Work Permit records Victor as employed in Vienna at “Durchgangslager Strasshof”. Durchgangslager Strasshof was a transit camp from where forced labourers were allocated to employers. By 26 October 1944, Victor had arrived at Gmund, where he seemingly stayed until at least to at least 19 March 1945, based on a work permit issued the 19 March 1945. While in Gmund he was employed at „Fürst Palffy sche Güterdirektion Heidenreichstein Kr Gmund Nd“ as a farm worker, according to the remant of a different German work permit. The 3rd January 1945, Victor held savings with the Savings Bank of Gmund State. Part of a letter from them, dated 3rd January 1945, sets out that he and his family were of Ukrainian ethnicity, but Aryan heritage. Between January/March 1945 and June 1945, it becomes harder to piece together movements. A German travel permit, dated 3 January 1945, gives Victor permission to travel through Slovakia - and a “Robbery Certificate” dated 21 January 1945 states they were the victims of a robbery, potentially in Slovakia, though only half the document survives. The document seems to advise they head towards, or gives permission to head towards, Nowy Sacz. Given the existence of the work permit issued 19 March, it would seem that if they did head to Slovakia, or even to Nowy Sacz in Poland, then they relatively quickly returned to Gmund. These documents advise they were traveling with Anatoly and Ludmila Kusmenko - whom they also appear with at subsequent Displaced Persons camps. Throughout these travels, what is not entirely clear is what was forced, versus what was choice. Germany removed enormous numbers of Ukrainians from Western Ukraine to Austria and Germany to support their industries. Given the work permits have Victor staying in labour camps, and have restrictions on movement, and activities - it would seem much of their journey - certainly post Sambir, was forced by German forces. Movements between areas are often timed in advance of their liberation by Soviets, which aligned with German ARLZ measures including deportation of local civilian populations for forced labor in the territory of the Reich. The next definitive location is June 1945 - Victor and Wsewolod arrive at Landshut 26th June 1945, which had already been liberated by the US army in the April. There, they resided at Eugenbach, Landshut Displaced Persons camp until 1st December 1945, based on the International Tracing Service’s registers. An Identity Card issued by the Ukrainian Committee for Niederbayern-Oberpfalz in Regensburg, confirms that Victor was a member of the Ukrainian Committee in Landshut. 31 August 1945, the German Military Government granted Victor an exemption to move from Eugenbach, Landshut “to Auremburg” with two horses and a wagon. He advised “his mother is living there, he wants to remain there”. By 19 March 1946, Victor was resident at Camp Ergolding, and 28 August 1947, Camp Ganacker - from where he received permission to relocate to England as part of a European Voluntary Worker scheme. Victor and Wsewolod were approved for departure to the UK from Ganacker 2 February 1948, their initial voyage on 26 February was cancelled, however they were ultimately able to make the journey, 31 March 1948. Circa 1948, Victor had a child with Maria Tkaczuk. Maria was resident at Landshut camp from 1943 to 1947, overlapping with Victor's stay there. To arrive in the UK, they took the train to the coast, and then caught a ship to England. In England within a few weeks both Victor and his son had been allocated jobs, however they were split up, for the first time in many years. Wsewolod was sent to Swindon to work as an interpreter in a cement factory, whereas his father was employed as an agricultural worker elsewhere. | |||
Anna PiwowarowaSources
1) Source: ITS Records Record for Victor Skliar. Reference: A.E.F. D.P. Registration Record (Data from direct source)2) Source: Members of the White Movement in Russia "Скляр Іван Корнеевичр. 1880 вс. Сватки Гадячского у. Прапорщик. В Вооруженньіх силах Юга Росии. Взят в плен. С 1923 на особом учете в Роменском ГПУ, /800/" (Data from secondary evidence)
3) Source: Living Sources. Reference: Wsewolod Skliar (Data from secondary evidence)
4) Source: Records of the International Tracing Service Record for Wsewolod Skliar. Reference: A.E.F. D.P. Registration Record (Data from direct source)
5) Source: France, Vital Records Record for Wsewolod Skliar and Julia Davidenko. Reference: Mairie Saint-Laurent-Blangy (Data from direct source)
6) Source: England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 Record for Victor Skliar. Reference: Database online. (Questionable reliability of evidence)
7) Source: ITS Records Records for Victor and Wsewolod Skliar. Reference: List of Russian Nationals stationed at Eugenbach, Landshut. Various lists compiled at different dates. (Data from direct source)
8) Source: ITS Records Record for Victor Skliar. Reference: A.E.F. Assmbly Center Registration Card (Data from direct source)