Since Alexandra is now living in Texarkana, this photo was taken downtown of her with her local family, close to the Federal Courthouse/U.S. Post Office. The Hornoks’ oldest son, Jonathan, is married to Mariah, and they have three children. He serve… — Since Alexandra is now living in Texarkana, this photo was taken downtown of her with her local family, close to the Federal Courthouse/U.S. Post Office. The Hornoks’ oldest son, Jonathan, is married to Mariah, and they have three children. He serves as the Texas side Assistant United States Attorney and works in the Federal Courthouse. The youngest, Eleanor, is 16 years old and still lives at home. The rest of the crew live all over the U.S.

*Eighteen-year-old Alexandra when she came to the U.S. on the S.S. Marine Swallow.*

*Alexandra visits with some children at the orphanage in Penza, Russia.*

Spring 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust. Alexandra Goode is a Holocaust survivor and has an incredible, full circle story to be told. She is a resident of Texarkana, now 90 years young, and is still making a difference in the lives of others.

Alexandra and her twin brother, Valoydsa, were born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, during 1929, the same year Anne Frank was born. Her mother died when she was just 3 years old so she never really knew her. The last day she saw her father, he drove her to school and told her, “I’m going to come get you.” So she had in her heart to wait for her dad. Months later, American and British planes bombed her house, and her twin brother passed away during the bombing. Her older brother, Egor, was drafted into Tito’s army and was later killed in the mountains during the war.

Around the Fall of 1942, Alexandra’s boarding school was closed, and she was sent to an orphanage in Belgrade which had fallen to the Germans. One day, a young man in a German uniform came to the orphanage with a picture and asked the nun if the girl in the picture was there. They brought Alexandra to him, and he told her that he had served under her father in the Vlasov’s underground army. This army was part of the resistance to the Soviets. The German soldier also made sure to tell Alexandra her father loved her very much. That’s the day she realized that her father had passed away and wasn’t coming to get her so she knew she had to stop waiting for him.

On a later day, during the night, German soldiers who were close to the orphanage came and told the girls to get up and leave everything behind. They followed the soldiers to trucks and were taken to the train station and separated from the nun who cared for them. Alexandra was taken with the older children who were closer to her age, around 13 years old. They were all stuffed into cattle cars that were already full of children, men and women. There was hardly enough room for them to stand up, let alone sit down. They didn’t know where they were going or what was going to happen. At times, the soldiers would throw food scraps onto the carts and call them pigs to humiliate them.

The train finally came to a stop in Dachau, and all Alexandra saw were people in striped clothing that looked like pajamas. She was robbed of her clothes, all of her hair was shaved off, and the soldiers told them to put on the striped pajamas that were on the floor. They were sent to the barracks and were treated less than humane. “For how many days? Forever, seems like forever,” said Alexandra. They slept on bunks that weren’t bunk beds but wooden shelves pushed against the wall. She said, “I don’t remember a whole lot of things. Maybe I just wanted to forget.” She spent four months in the concentration camp and about nine months in labor camp.

*George and Alexandra approximately 10 years ago.*

During the Spring of 1945, Alexandra snuck out of the labor camp gate with 10 other girls and took a train that was soon to be blown up by the Germans. At one point, a young soldier who was fleeing the train told them to jump, minutes before it was blown up with some of the documentation and evidence. When she was 18 years old, Alexandra arrived in America by ship in New Jersey. She always wanted to take care of the children, and when she came to the United States she wanted to be a nun because of the way nuns had cared for her in the past.

*Alexandra’s engagement photo taken in Memphis, Tennessee, during 1951.*

One thing that’s evident is how much Alexandra loves her husband, George Goode, who passed away during 2019. As a couple, they started an orphan adoption agency during retirement, ultimately helping place over 250 Russian orphans into American homes, mostly in the Dallas area. When she was 68 years young, she told her husband, “I think it’s time to go back to Russia to see about the orphans.” Alexandra went with a youth group to many Russian orphanages and met many kids who she was able to help immensely. George owned a high tech company in Dallas while Alexandra owned a travel agency; so George did all the paperwork for the adoption agency and Alexandra “did all the footwork,” she said.

“We just need to be available,” said Alexandra. There were many young Russian orphans who were disabled, and Alexandra was able to bring them to America and get them help. She prayed for a baby named Sergey who had a cleft palate, who was in the Russian baby orphanage. She said, “My heart just went, ‘I have to do something about it.’” Alexandra took a picture of Sergey, showed her church, and there was a family with two little girls who told their parents they wanted a baby brother. She was then able to find a doctor who would perform surgery on Sergey, and now he is a healthy teenager living with his loving family

Alexandra also met a little girl in the Russian orphanage who only had one arm and on that arm, only three fingers. Her name was Amy and Alexandra’s son, Steve, ended up adopting her so she is now Alexandra’s granddaughter. Steve actually adopted a total of seven kids through his parents’ adoption agency and were able to give them a home and a family in which to belong.

One of the adopted orphans is a varsity soccer player at Texas High and will graduate in May of 2020. Samuel was in the baby orphanage in Penza, Russia, where he and his older sister, Sarah, were helped by the Goodes. Samuel said, “Living here, I’ve had the benefit of a large family, church, great education, and the promise of college and a good career.” He was too young to remember when the Goodes came to the orphanage, but he said, “I grew up knowing that Sarah and the rest of my family held them in the highest regard. I also know from my family that Penza was not an easy place to get to, and it seems unlikely that we would’ve been adopted without Mrs. Alexandra and Mr. George’s help.”

Some of the adopted kids who she’s helped think she is their real grandmother. Alexandra said they call her “babushka” which means grandmother in Russian. “I love those kids,” she said.

Alexandra and George really found an extended family with all the children that they were able to help through their adoption agency. Many of the kids still message and call her from time-to-time.

She has seen so many things in her lifetime, and she praises God for placing her where she needed to be. If Alexandra could encourage an orphan today she said she would “encourage them to forgive their parents.” Then, “later in life, to adopt a child.” Alexandra always taught her own daughter, Vicki, and two sons, Mark and Steve, the difference between right and wrong and reminded them that they were very fortunate with what they had.

One verse that Alexandra has clung to is Genesis 50:19-21. It says, “But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.’”

*On July 27, 2019, many of Alexandra’s grandkids and great grandkids attended George’s funeral; six of them were adopted from Penza, Russia.*

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