As my mother tells the story, my great grandmother had the choice of either taking a bus, or hanging on to the back of some delivery truck. She chose the truck. The bus broke through the ice and disappeared under the water.
It's strange to realize how close one can be to not being "here" and how history weaves its way through your blood and ends up on the front page of hackernews.
I would like to invite the audience to remember how many similar stories are being played out in the present day.
They evacuated him over Lake Ladoga to Siberia where he spent the war. His father returned to Leningrad after the war and made contact, and they sent him at 10 years old by himself on the trans-Siberian railway back to Leningrad with a sack of potatoes to eat/trade.
Back at school in Leningrad they saw German POWs helping cleanup/rebuild and they would trade with them.
He also remembers enjoying American movies in the late 40's, before they were banned.
It's remarkable that they sacrificed even their own lives to this end.