The tape is a formal interview with Evgeniia Abramovna Shvardovskaia, born in Zof'yuvka (Yiddish: Trokhinbrod) in 1923. (Part 1 of 2. See MDV 579) Her grandfather Avrom was a potter. The conversation moves to Jewish life in Zof'yuvka before the war. She studied at a Polish school for seven grades. She got married to a Russian man in 1944. When she discusses Sabbath celebrations before the war, she mentions that her grandmother had two daughters and a son in America. The son would send her money on holidays. She then discusses her life during the war when she escaped from a pit. She hid in the woods for two years. A Ukrainian friend brought food into the woods. When the village people were alarmed that the Germans came closer, the Ukrainian friend put the food in the canal and stopped coming into the woods. She then explains why Zof'yuvka was named Trokhinbrod in Yiddish.

The conversation then moves to her life during the war when she joined the partisans. She arrived in Luts'k in 1946 and worked as nurse in a hospital. Shvardovskaia explains that many Russian Jews moved to Luts'k after the war. The discussion then turns to wedding customs and Purim celebrations before the war. She then talks about life after the war in Luts'k when Jews gathered on holidays in people's homes. When talking about prewar life in Zof'yuvka, she states that every non-Jew spoke Yiddish and explains Jewish occupations in town.