Alex Redner

Alex Redner was 11 years old when the German army began bombarding his hometown of Lviv (then Lwow) on Sept. 1, 1939. Less than three weeks later, the Red Army occupied the city.


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With Ukraine under attack, we stand by our programmatic partners in Ukraine and Russia working to  build more tolerant communities.

“Once We Repel the Aggressors, We Will Get Back to Work.” A report on our educational programming in Ukraine.

We scanned our Visual History Archive for stories that speak to the fear and flight in Ukraine today. Read about Helen Helfant’s close call with death in Odesa, Samuel Orshan’s escape from Kyiv, and Alex Redner’s survival in Lviv. The words of survivors, as they often do, reach forward through time.  

Emiliia Kessler grew up in Khmel'nik, then part of Soviet Ukraine. Watch as she recalls the complex tensions between the Russians, the Ukrainians and the Jewish community that were part of everyday life in the 1930s.

Our Russia and Ukraine experts spoke with Annenberg Media.