Ribbon bar awarded to Mikhail Zhilin for his service in WWII in the Soviet Union. There are four rows containing 12 ribbons.
Children of Survivors seated in front of a memorial to the six million murdered Jews, c. 1948.
Ribbon bar awarded to Mikhail Zhilin for his service in WWII in the Soviet Union. There are four rows containing 12 ribbons.
Mikhail Zhilin was born on April 24, 1926, in Minsk, Belarus. Mikhail, his parents, and two sisters, Mara and Kima, were interned in the Minsk Ghetto in October 1941. His mother and two sisters perished there, and the father was later declared Missing in Action (MIA) from the Red Army. In July 1943, Mikhail was sent to Maly Trostinets concentration camp. Soon after he escaped and joined the partisans. In the fall of 1944, he joined the Red Army. He was injured in battle and suffered vision damage and paralysis of his left cheek, as a result, he was discharged in 1947. He was awarded many medals for his service. After the army, he returned to Minsk where he met his wife, Gesha Levkovich. She had spent the war evacuated to the East. Together they had two sons. One of their sons immigrated to Chicago in 1987, and the rest of the family followed in 1990. Mikhail died on February 5, 2016, in Chicago.
