Zhenia Mandler was born in Shargorod (near Vinnitsa, Ukraine) in 1923, in a poor working-class family. She was one of three daughters. In 1931, Zhenia began to attend a Yiddish school, and studied there for seven years. Then, all the Yiddish-language schools in Soviet Ukraine were liquidated, and she switched to a Ukrainian school, where she studied for another three years. After completing her schooling, she had to work to support herself. In January 1941, the Komsomol organization of her city sent her to work in construction in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she was required to perform hard physical labor, despite her tender age.
Following the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in June 1941, Zhenia and the other workers were sent to Stalingrad, where they performed various tasks, such as digging trenches and building defensive fortifications. Soon, Zhenia decided to volunteer for frontline service. She enlisted in a geodesic engineering unit, and remained in this role until the end of the war. Her duties involved recording coordinates for artillery fire, and she worked closely with the unit commander, earning recognition for her abilities.
In 1942, their division was relocated to defend the Kuban region. Food supplies were very poor, and the soldiers suffered from constant hunger. From the Kuban, they were transferred to the Caucasus, and thence to the Crimea. Zhenia frequently risked her life delivering secret reports on coordinates to artillery units, often traveling to the front lines under enemy fire.
While serving in the military, Zhenia did her best to support her younger sisters, who had survived the Romanian-administered Shargorod Ghetto, which was liberated by the Red Army in March 1944; their parents had died from typhus in the ghetto in 1942. She refrained from consuming sugar and sold it instead, sending the money to her sisters. Later, she provided them with official documentation of her service in the Red Army, enabling them to receive state benefits.
Zhenia was discharged from the army in 1945. After the end of the war, she moved to Chernovtsy and worked in the regional department of the Komsomol organization. She married in 1947, and her first son was born in 1948, followed by a second son in 1952. She took various jobs, working as an accountant, cashier, and railway dispatcher.
In 1973, one of her sons moved to Israel. That same year, Zhenia and her husband also left the USSR for Israel.
