Reports of Russians deporting Ukrainians to camps troubles Stalin survivors

They were children when the Russian soldiers came for them in the dead of winter 1940.

The armed men who barged into their homes and gave them a half-hour to get dressed and pack a bag were called Soviets back then. And in the early days of World War II, they rousted Poles from their homes in what is now western Ukraine and shipped them off to the gulags in Siberia.

For these survivors, reports that Ukrainians are now being deported to "filtration" camps deep inside Russia brought back painful memories of their own ordeals — mixed with deep sympathy for a new generation of victims.

“I was just 3-and-a-half when the Russians came for us in the middle of the night, but I can still remember the sound of them banging on the door with rifles and bayonets and yelling 'Out! Out!” Marie Wypijewski, 85, told NBC News. "They made my father stand with his face to the wall while my mother packed and dressed us in the warmest clothes she could find."