Escape from the Nazis (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Escape from the Nazis

2:39pm Thursday 27th September 2007

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STEPHAN Barbaruk has always had an unusual surname but it was his daughter who sparked his interest in tracing the family tree.

Mr Barbaruk and his wife Linda have one daughter, Nina, 34, and one son, Adam, 32.

"When my parents died, my daughter started asking a few questions and we started looking up the unusual name," said Mr Barbaruk.

Mr Barbaruk, 60, and his brother Peter 54, have lived in and around Corsham since 1949 but are now discovering their roots in wartime Eastern Europe.

Their ancestors hail from the Ukraine but Mr Barbaruk and his brother started their research in Germany.

He said: "I thought it was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Names have changed. Borders have changed."

But soon he was contacted via the Internet by a woman called Sylvia Alexander, whose maiden name was Barbaruk.

Mr Barbaruk went to Bokel in Germany to meet Mrs Alexander and her American-born husband John.

"At first I though it would prove nothing for the family tree, but when we started looking back we realised our great grandfather's wives were both called Anastasia. It was too much of a coincidence," he said.

Mr Barbaruk's parents had left the Ukraine for Germany in 1939 when they were taken by the Nazis to work in factories. Mr Barbaruk, who is manager of Wessex Chamber of Commerce, said: "You could say they were the lucky ones because some were shot.

"Like most of these things they never spoke about it which meant when I started looking I had no knowledge."

The family remained in Germany, where Mr Barbaruk was born, until the end of the war when they were given the choice to go east or west.

Mr Barbaruk said: "They chose west because they were more scared of the Russians than the Nazis."

The family arrived as refugees by boat in Hull in 1949 and were sent to a camp in Westwells, just outside Corsham.

Mr Barbaruk's parents were in and out of hospital with TB but the family lived in the refugee camp for nearly ten years before being given a council house in Charles Street, Corsham.

Mr Barbaruk, who spoke Ukrainian with his parents at home, said: "I can remember going to Regis School aged nine and I was the first foreign child in the school."

Mr Barbaruk's parents have now died but he was inspired to do a family history search by the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are?

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