For Isabella Svetlosanova, the sound of a metronome reminds her of the darkest moments in her life. A radio station in Leningrad would use one to warn residents that the city was under attack.  

“The metronome would always play on the radio and depending on the frequency, it would alert us to the bombings," said Svetlosanova.
 
Svetlosanova was four years old when Nazi forces surrounded her hometown of Leningrad. She’s been fighting for reparations from the German government for decades and now, she’ll start to get them.  
 
“I’ve been trying to get through to the German government for a long time. We were not compensated as we should’ve been,” Svetlosanova said.

Greg Schneider heads up the Claims Conference which negotiates reparations with the German Government on behalf of Holocaust victims.

“Every penny that is paid to a Holocaust survivor – beyond what it can buy, food, medicine, rent – is really an apology," he said.
 
Svetlosanova will soon get $443 a month for the rest of her life.

It was September 8, 1941, when Nazi forces laid siege to Leningrad, leaving residents without adequate food or water. Svetlosanova said the hunger felt permanent.  
 
“The only food available was bread and we could only get 125 grams per person per day – about four ounces," she said.
 
Svetlosanova said her family took extreme measures to stay alive.  
 
“My father was an artist and used this special glue made from animal bones. We boiled it and turned it into soup," she said.
 
When winter came, conditions became even more dire. Svetlosanova said temperatures plummeted to -40 degrees and there was no heat inside her home.  
 
“I only remember darkness. There was no daylight in the house. Windows were covered with wooden boards to keep the heat in," she said.
 
Between the cold, the starvation and the bombing, 1.5 million people died. That’s more than half the population. Svetlosanova and her parents escaped after eight months. The blockade lasted nearly 2-and-a-half years.
 
“I fear people will forget with time. We can’t let that same horror happen again,” Svetlosanova said.
 
She said the financial settlement is an acknowledgment of the torture her people survived.

“Nothing is forgotten, no one is forgotten," she said.