Immigrant: Olia Balaban, ID #1.
Interview dates: August, 24, 2004 and August,31, 2004
Interviewers: Hania Essenhigh and Arkadia Melnyk
Photos:
1. Olia in Augsburg in 1948, photo taken by Petro Oleksijienko
2. Olha in Ausgburg 1948 on river Lech
3. Students of faculty of philosophy at Ukrainaian Free University in Munchen
1946
4. Signatures students of philosophy
5. Wedding Olia and Vasyl in Montreal in May 26 1951 with sister Oksana
Rybachuk maid of honor, uncle Mykola Rybachuk behind Olia, and father
Sliuzar, photo taken by Vasyl Nakonechnyi who is best man at wedding
6. Olia with father Volodymyr Rybachuk 1929
7. Mykola, third from the right, with members of his 41st Suwalki Division of
the Polish Infantry Regiment during maneuvers before 1939 where he was
sent by the UNR (Ukrainian National Republic) for training. He is wearing
the Polish uniform of a major.
8. Olia in Columbus Ohio at the second interview.
Documents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Birth certificate from Berdychiv
School report through 7th grade
Certificate of completion of 7th grade at School Number 17 dated 1940
Certificate of change of domicile 1942 when Olia left Berdychiv for Kyiv
Certificate of completion of Touch Typing at School of SpeedWriting
September 15th, 1950
6. Letter to INS dated June 18th, 1951 certifying that Olia is employed by M.C.
Mook Inc. in New York city
7. Volodymyr Rybachuk’s death certificate issued in August 1956 stating he
died June 5th 1946.
8. Cover page of Index of Courses (transcript) taken at Ukrainian Free
University (UFU).
9. Photo and signature of Olha Rybachuk in Index of Courses at UFU.
10. First page of Index of Courses with starting date June 1st, 1946 and signed by
the Rector, professor Mirchuk.
11. Last entry in Index for year 48/49.
Biography:
1925 to 1942
Olia was born on November 30, 1925 to Volodymyr Rybachuk and his wife Lutsia
(Lucia) in Berdychiv in the Zhytomyr rayon. She has one sibling, a younger sister named
Oksana. Olia’s father, who with his brother Mykola, had completed Military school in St
Petersburg before WWI, was arrested on April 14, 1938 by the Soviets who accused him
of being ‘An Enemy of the People’ and sent to Kolyma in October of that year. Kolyma
refers to a vast area in the Arctic Circle where the Soviet NKVD Penal Division
established and administered concentration camps that were recognized for their
brutality. It was part of the ‘The Gulag Archipelago’. Volodymyr never returned from
Kolyma but was given a certificate of successful rehabilitation. His wife and daughters
learned of his whereabouts by happenstance. He died in 1946 but his wife learned of his
death only in 1956.
1942 to 1946
Olia left Berdychiv in February 1942 for Kyiv to escape being taken by the Germans as
ostarbeiter. She traveled in an open truck that was transporting food stuff to the capital.
In Kyiv she sought refuge with her uncle Mykola and his wife. She found work at the
daily newspaper “Ukrainske Slovo” (“Ukrainian Word”). Later Oksana joined the
household. Mykola had lived in Rivne and had also trained with the Polish Infantry in
Suwalki. The sisters grew to appreciate their uncle and his wife and considered them their
adoptive parents. The three women emigrated in July 1943 to Cholm in Poland by train.
Later Mykola joined them in Nowy Sacz (Poland). Together they continued west through
Prague (Czechoslovakia). They reached Vienna in April 1945. They lived in Kornenburg
outside Vienna. Oksana had to traveled from Kornenburg to Vienna to attend High
School (gymnasium). Next they moved to Frankenhofen in Bavaria which was in the
American zone. To escape the repatriation mandated by the Yalta Agreements among the
Allies, Olia and her sister pretended to be Mykola’s daughters and told the American
Authorities that they were born in Rivne which was not under Soviet control in 1939 and
thus exempt from repatriation clauses. However, that did not guarantee their safety since
the Soviets would make unexpected raids to the domiciles of Displaced Persons to verify
or to enforce compliance with the Agreement. When they heard a patrol coming, people
would flee to the forest, whether they were from Eastern or Western Ukraine for the
Soviets made it a habit to catch people and ask verification later.
1946 - 1949
Olia and her family were admitted to the Somme Kaserne DP camp in Augsburg in
Bavaria in 1946. Augsburg was in the American zone near Munich. There, in the spring
1946, Olia started to attend classes at the Faculty of philosophy of the Ukrainian Free
University (UFU) in Slavic languages and literature. Later the Faculty transferred to
Munich and Olia traveled daily from the camp to Munich. Olia attended seven semesters
at UFU until April 1949 when she left for the United States. At the camp Olia also joined
the YWCA (Young Women Christian Association) and participated in such activities as
conferences organized by the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences under the direction of
Prof Volodymyr Miyakovskyy, or plays, or religious services. The plays were staged by
the Blavatsky Troupe. The religious services were of Catholic and Orthodox
denominations. At the camp, Olia met Vasyl Balaban who was to become her husband.
The Rybachuks applied for residence in the United States. They were sponsored by a
friend of Mykola from his days in Suwalki. Their trip was paid by an organization called
‘Catholic Action’. They sailed from Bremen to New York where they arrived on Easter
Sunday April 24, 1949. On arrival, the Rubachuks had no money of their own but had to
borrow to pay for the rent of their apartment.
1949-1951
Olia adapted quickly to her new country. She attended classes of English and speed
typing. She soon found a job in the city. Eventually, the family repaid to “Catholic
Action” the cost of their trip across the Atlantic in total.
1951 – 1954
In 1951 Olia left new York for Montreal to marry Vasyl Balaban. She did not return to
New York until 1954 when Vasyl got a job in the States.
1954 – present
Olia lived in New Jersey and in New York. In the mid sixties Olia learned that her
mother with whom she had lost contact since 1943 had heart problems. She determined to
bring her mother to the States. Her first step was to let the INS (Immigration and
Naturalization Services) know that her 1949 application to the USA contained some
factual errors, that is that she was not born in Rivne but in Berdychiv nor that her parents
were Mykola and his wife but Volodymyr and Lutsia. The INS representative accepted
her corrections and recognized the relationship of mother and daughter between Olia and
Lutsia. On that basis, her mother was allowed to immigrate in 1967. When she came to
New York, Mrs Rybachuk brought all the documents that we have copied here and more.
Olia and Vasyl have three duaghters and live currently in Columbus, Ohio. Vasyl retired
after a successful career with the American Electric Power Company.
Summary of Domiciles:
1925 – February 1942
Dimitrova Street # 8
Berdychiv, Ukraine
1942 – July 1943
Nesterowska Street # 36
Kyiv, Ukraine
1943 – March 1944
Hrabieszow Street # 7
Cholm, Poland
1944 - August 1944
Yagielonska Street
Nowy Sacz, Poland
September 1944 – April 1945
Hitlerplatz #
Korneuburg, Austria
1945 – 1946
Frankenhofen, Bavaria, Germany
1946 – April 1949
Somme Kaserne DP Camp
Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany (American Zone)
1949 – 1951
East 3rd Street
New York, NY
1951 – 1954
Montreal, Canada
1954 – present
USA
Current Activities
Member (free) of Soyuz Ukrainok
Member of Saint John Chrysostom Catholic Church
Member of the Ukrainian Cultural Association of Central Ohio
Participant of the yearly United Nations Festival in Columbus