Born in the years immediately following World War II, the boys and girls who resulted from relationships between Austrian women and Soviet soldiers were called “children of the enemy” and “children of the occupation.” Today, however, they consider themselves “children of the liberation,” and are eager to discover their Russian roots.
“The only thing that my mother knew about my father was that he was from Kalinin [modern-day Tver], and his name was Mikhail Groman or Grossman,” said Eleonora Dupuis, an Austrian who has been looking for her Russian father for the last two decades.
This arduous endeavor has required multiple visits to Russia, many requests to archives, meeting officials, conducting a number of DNA tests, taking part in TV programs and communicating with many people. As a result, 10 men who might be her father were found, but none turned out to be him. She published a book about her search.
