They became creative, even boiling down the glue from book bindings to create “library candy,” which tasted like wax but contained some protein. Those who survived subsisted on ration bread that was mostly sawdust, or they used what little money and valuables they had to buy what little food was left in the city. The streets weren’t safe - residents had to worry about the NKVD and even cannibals - but their homes weren’t safe either when the German bombs fell at night. Although the Soviets emerged victorious, millions of soldiers and civilians perished from hunger, the cold, and sickness. The Germans surrounded the city, but they were never able to capture it. The Siege of Leningrad lasted more than two years during World War II, from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944. When I realized that thought was my own, I felt a surge of guilt. Whenever they dropped their bombs, it wouldn’t be on me. It seemed wonderfully abstract to me, somebody else’s war. I wondered what buildings they would flatten, or if they would be shot down by our boys on the ground, or our pilots in the air. I heard the whine of airplane engines and looked up to see four Messerschmitts racing toward Leningrad, so high above us they seemed harmless as fruit flies.
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