History of Ukrainian diaspora highlighted with personal stories in documentary

AMHERST — A documentary film built on the oral histories of Ukrainian refugees after World War II highlighted the country's ties to Lorain on Monday. As part of the lead-up to the 55th Lorain International Festival and Bazaar, the Amherst Cinema played host to "Baba Babee Skazala: Grandmother Told Grandmother." The roughly hourlong documentary was compiled from dozens of interviews with adults who, as children, were caught between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in World War II. One of those was Tetiana Silecky, of Lorain, who left Ukraine at 8 years old. She and the others featured in the film traveled as refugees. Soviet troops targeted her family because they owned land, she said during the film. They, and others, were caught between German and Soviet occupation. They survived the 1933 famine created by the Soviets, but not knowing the extent of the damage the Nazi regime planned to inflict on the region. Ukrainians and others from Slavic countries were forced to wear "OST" patches during Nazi occupation, and worked in their home countries and Germany to keep the war machine afloat. When Soviet forces pushed Germany out of Ukraine in 1944, many Ukrainians attempted to stay in displaced-persons camps in Germany, or tried to seek refugee status in other countries to avoid going back to their Soviet-controlled country, according to the stories told in the documentary. Silecky eventually settled in Lorain, and would go on to become a Ukrainian teacher at St. John Ukrainian Catholic Church on the southside. Roman Kniahynyckyj, who hosted the afternoon's showing and a question-and-answer session with producer Julie Parker, said he remembered Silecky from Saturday morning school at the church. Selicky's grandson and Parker's son, Matej Silecky, were behind the documentary. What started as a senior project in college grew to a three-year endeavor that found its way into several film festivals and onto PBS, Parker said. It started from Matej Silecky interviewing his grandmother, who is now in her 80s and splits her time between Lorain and Florida. From there, Tetiana Selicky suggested more and more Ukrainians who she knew remembered leaving or fighting against the Soviets and Germans in the midst of WWII, Parker said. That phone tree inspired the film's title, "Grandmother told Grandmother," she said. As a relative outsider looking in on the Ukrainian culture and the history of the diaspora, Parker said listening to the interviews helped give her an understanding of how horrible the individuals' experiences were, but also how positive they were about coming to the United States. She also noted history repeating itself in the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She also pointed out the resiliency and strength of the Ukrainian community the world over. "I think the fact that the Ukrainian community in the diaspora has continued to be so supportive and worked so hard at maintaining a culture for all these years in between really makes a big difference," she said. "Baba Babee Skazala: Grandmother Told Grandmother" is available to stream on PBS.org or Tubitv.com. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.