Crecomm - Michael Wilms

Giesbrecht says she became one of the gang.

“She dressed like us boys, but she was such a beauty. Sometimes she would wear a dress that her mother got for her; absolutely beautiful. She had blonde hair and deep blue eyes, eyes so deep that when they looked at you they looked right through you.”

The occupation of Nikopol continued and in 1943 Tamara’s father began fighting with the Russian Partisans.

“They ambushed German soldiers, blew up train tracks and stole weapons,” says Giesbrecht.

The Partisans hid on an island across the river known as Neider-Chortiza. Tamara’s mother routinely brought food and supplies across the river to her husband.

“One night her mother found out that the Germans were on to her. So she stayed with her husband on the other side,” says Giesbrecht.

This left Tamara to take up her mother’s cause. She began taking food to the Partisans.

“It wasn’t long until they caught her,” says Giesbrecht. “They beat her up very badly. Her face was all black and blue.”

After Tamara was interrogated, the German soldiers put her to work on the river barges.

“She was unloading watermelons. So I went up to the Germans guarding the prisoners, and I spoke German so I asked them if I could talk to my girlfriend.”

Giesbrecht took Tamara by the hand and led her to their bridge where he had hid a rowboat.

“We didn’t speak a word. I just rowed her across. I knew what lay in store for her. She was either going to be shot or worse sent to the camps.”