In July 2024, together with Tomasz Słomczyński and the TVN24 team, the Polish Center for Torture Survivors filmed stories of survivors. Our heroines from Sema Ukraine shared their traumatic experiences during the war in Ukraine. The link to the materials is below. We invite you to explore this important piece. During the interviews, Alina Zubenko and Natalia Tymec provided translations.
The conversations with the “Survivors” were recorded in a quiet location near Przemyśl. The creators of the series created a space that ensured physical and psychological safety. Psychotraumatologists from the Polish Center for Torture Survivors, Wiola Rebecka and Izabela Trybus, were present during the recordings. Each conversation ended with joint therapeutic sessions—for both the heroines and the crew.
The material was published on the website: https://tvn24.pl/swiat/ocalale-w-tvn24-go-kobiety-opowiadaja-o-rosyjskiej-niewoli-st8120481
Psychotraumatologists from the Polish Center for Torture Survivors—Wiola Rebecka and Izabela Trybus—handled the stabilization of the women sharing their stories. “It’s about interventions designed to ensure that their trauma was addressed, understood, cried out, and experienced in safe conditions. We had to make sure that telling these stories wouldn’t become another burdensome experience, or retraumatization,” explains Wiola. Both Iza and Wiola are experienced therapists who have worked for years with people dealing with trauma. “When the survivors were in prison, they had the feeling that the world had forgotten about them,” says Iza.
“It was also difficult for them that no one would ever know what they were going through,” she continues. “It is important for them to have the right to tell their story the way they want to tell it, on their own terms. Furthermore, these women tell their stories to help other women still imprisoned by the Russians. This is part of what we call psychological rehabilitation for trauma survivors. Rehabilitation, or returning to psychological well-being. A crucial part of this process is regaining a sense of control over their lives, which they were deprived of in prison during torture. They are telling the world what they went through, and they are doing it for a specific purpose—they decide about it themselves,” Wiola adds.
All episodes of “Survivors” can be watched on the website: https://tvn24.pl/go/programy,7/ocalale-odcinki,1474305/odcinek-6,S00E06,1474321
Julia, Ludmila, Svetlana, and Larisa are extraordinary and brave Ukrainian women who speak about the nightmare of Russian captivity. Arrested for trivial reasons, held for years in prisons without trial, brutally interrogated. But they survived. They want the world to hear their stories. “This is revenge,” says one of the protagonists. “Above and below our cell, there were interrogation rooms. You could hear the moans, the beating of people. I heard that horrible sound, it will probably never leave my head… how people are tortured with electricity.” This is just one testimony of the cruelty that took place in the Russian “Isolation.”
