Holocaust survivor finds refuge from Ukraine war in Poland

92-year-old Holocaust survivor and Ukrainian refugee from Kyiv, Iya Rudzitskaya, gestures during an interview in Krakow, Poland January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - Iya Rudzitskaya, a 92-year-old Ukrainian Jew, has fled Kyiv twice. First, in 1941, when she was just 10 years old and German bombs started falling on the then Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The second time came last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

"I did not believe that this could ever happen," said Rudzitskaya, sitting in the small one-bedroom flat she shares with her son Artur in the Polish city of Krakow.