She Came from Mariupol — Natascha Wodin

She Came from Mariupol is an autobiographical novel by Natascha Wodin, winner of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2017. The book is the result of the author's years-long search for her mother's story.

Wodin's mother, Yevheniia Yakovleva, was born in Mariupol, taken as a forced laborer by the Nazis to Germany, and committed suicide after the war. For decades, Natascha knew virtually nothing about her life before her daughter was born.

Through the internet and archives, the author reconstructs the family history — from Italian roots through Mariupol, the Holodomor, occupation, and camps. It is a book about memory, silence, and the pain of "Ostarbeiter" — the forgotten victims of World War II.