Michael Moshe Primak

Michael was born in a very small village ,Obukhovychi, it's 10 KM from Ivankov, in this village lived in 1910 only 54 Jews. His date of birth is 7th July 1916 (24th June by the Julian calendar).

When the war started he joined the Red Army, unit 13 зсбр from Ivankov. Probably shortly after he joined the army, he was caught in captivity by the Nazis and was in a POW camp near Cherkasy, Ukraine (probably in шталаг 345) Later, a local doctor rescued him from the camp, and he was hidden in a village's hospital near the camp (Cherkasy Oblast) by 3 nureses. With one of the nurses, he had a baby named Sonya (He had contact with his daughter also after the war and he helped her but the connection was lost after he passed away)

After some period, he joined the Partisans (he couldn't return to the Red Army probably because of Stalin's order No.270 that forbids to surrender alive) , he fought until May 1945 in Berlin. He was in the Infantry.

After the war ended he returned to Ivankov, and there he met Pasha. They first lived in Obukhovychi. When Pasha was pregnant with Leonid, there was a hunger in Ukraine. So they sold their house in Obukhovychi, took their horses and moved to Belarus, they settled down in Molchad, Belarus and there Leonid was born. They lived in Molchad, Belarus for 2 years, and in 1949 they moved back to Ivankov.

Later, in 1959, they divorced. After the divorce he met another woman and they probably lived in Kiev. When he got sick, he asked return to Ivankov, to Pasha , that she will take care after him. In 1966 he passed away from cancer and was buried in Ivankov Jewish cemetery.

His son wrote about him and his sister Sonya when he looked for her in the Russian TV show Wait for Me in 2014:

"Я живу одиноко. Инвалид 1 гр. Хочу разыскать хоть какую-то свою кровиночку. Мой отец Примак Михаил Львович после призыва в Армию попал в окружение в районе Черкасс, но с помощью местного врача был спасен, бежал из плена. После чего его переправили в партизаны. Отец провоевал 4 года в пехоте и закончил победу в Берлине. Потом сошелся с одной из сестер, давших ему убежище. У меня где-то в Черкасской обл. есть сестра Примак София (Соня). Сейчас на Украине смутное время, я беспокоюсь за ее судьбу. "