Semion Krivosheev was born in Gomel, Belarus, in 1913. After finishing school, he worked for nine years as a metalworker at an agricultural machine-building plant.
Following the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Krivosheev completed a two-month course for aircraft engine operators, and was then sent to the front as an aircraft engineer. His duties involved refueling planes, loading bombs, and ensuring that the equipment remained operational. Unfortunately, his assault regiment was decimated in the first three days of combat, and all the planes were shot down. He was then transferred to another base, where he worked from 1942 to 1943, servicing aircraft.
In 1943, Semion decided to train to be a pilot. At the time, he believed that his entire family (including his parents, sister, wife, and daughter) had been killed, so he did not put a high value on his own life. He would later learn that his family had managed to evacuate from Gomel, and survived. Krivosheev successfully completed thirty-eight operational flights, and was awarded the Order of the Red Star in April 1944. Because of his extensive experience, he was asked by the regimental commander to train young pilots, and he took on the jobs of instructor and gunner. In the latter role, he defended the aircraft from enemy attacks.
In July 1944, Semion flew on a plane that was being operated by an inexperienced pilot. The aircraft was shot down, and Semion managed to parachute out of it, landing in enemy-occupied territory. He was immediately captured by the Nazis and sent to a POW camp that held more than 200,000 inmates. Thanks to his Russian-sounding last name, no one wondered about his nationality at first. Later, however, when the prisoners were transferred to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Germany, the Nazis carried out a new inspection and discovered that Semion was Jewish.
From that moment on, his life was in constant danger, and survival was a matter of dumb luck. At one point, he was sentenced to death, but saved by his fellow prisoners. He had to hide inside the overcrowded camp for a while and go without bread, the staple food of the inmates. Fortunately, his comrades shared small portions of bread with him, keeping him alive. During the final stages of the war, he was transferred to the Buchenwald camp, from which he managed to escape. A few days later, he was found by US soldiers.
Following an investigation, Semion was sent back to the Soviet Union, and returned to his home city of Gomel. By that time, he was already aware that his family had survived and returned from evacuation. He now had to find employment – a challenging task in his case, because of the stigma attached in Stalin's USSR to former POWs liberated from German captivity. Ultimately, he secured a job at a restaurant, and was able to support his family. In the years that followed, two more daughters were born to him. In 1991, Semion Krivosheev and his whole family moved to Israel. He died in 1996.
