Other people and locals’ perception of the deportees

Naum Kleiman describes the local inhabitants’ distrust of his family. One reason was that some of them were former collaborators from the German Hilfspolizei who had accompanied them into deportation and were now indeed stukachi (informers), continuing to spy and report on them. Relations with the permanent residents, on the other hand, appear to have been based on a lack of information, but were also enriched by surprising exchanges that reflected the villagers’ support for the deportees.