Bringing Ukraine to La Crosse: Architect reflects on her homeland
Olena Belka grew up in Odessa, Ukraine, and moved to La Crosse in 2014. She had been traveling between her two homes up until two months ago, when the war in Ukraine began.
LA CROSSE (WKBT) — They say home is where the heart is. While the war in Ukraine continues, some people are doing everything they can to hold onto their homes.
Olena Belka grew up in Odessa, Ukraine, and moved to La Crosse in 2014. She had been traveling between her two homes up until two months ago, when the war in Ukraine began.
Since then, she’s been showing her Ukrainian pride through architecture.
“I did it like my brother would do,” Belka said, speaking about her home.
For Belka, pieces of Ukraine can be found throughout her home in La Crosse..
“This house doesn’t look like an American home,” she said.
Minimalist and sustainable.
“My brother has a kitchen like this, so when I was designing this house, I did the same,” Belka said.
With not a cabinet in sight.
“In Europe, we tend to not collect a lot of things,” she said.
In Ukraine, Belka and her brother worked in construction, building several high rises in Odessa.
“The rockets will destroy that building,” she said of a high rise her brother worked on. “Probably one of the first buildings, if anything.”
She was in Odessa one day before the war began, and she narrowly escaped.
“The airport in Odessa, where I was flying from, was bombed,” she said.
Belka, who comes from a Jewish background, says the war in Ukraine is a reminder that history can repeat itself.
“What happened in the past is happening right now,” she said.
Her grandparents lived in Ukraine during the Holocaust.
“They were not able to even use their Jewish last name because it was very dangerous for them,” she said.
Belka keeps her identity alive, something she says her grandparents didn’t have the option to do.
“You become everybody else so that you can survive,” Belka said.
Alive through the foundation her home rests on, she said, noting, “I am Ukrainian, I can’t separate myself from that.”
Keeping her home close to her heart.
Belka will speak at the annual Holocaust Remembrance service at Congregation Sons of Abraham in La Crosse about about her grandparents’ experience and how it relates to Ukraine today. The free, public service will begin at 5:45 p.m. Thursday.
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