DONETSK, Ukraine (CNN) -- A frail Irene Famulak clutched her brother on the airport tarmac, her arm wrapped around him in a tight embrace, tears streaming down their faces. It was the first time since 1942 they had seen each other, when she was 17 and he was just 7.



Siblings Wssewolod Galezkij and Irene Famulak were separated in 1942 when Nazis took her to a labor camp.



That was the night the invading Nazis came to take her away from her Ukrainian home.



"I remember it well because I kissed him good-bye, and he pushed me away," she said of her brother. "I asked, 'Why did you do that?' And he said that he doesn't like kisses."



"The Nazis told my mother that I was being taken to work in a German labor camp for six months. But it was, of course, much longer. I was there for years."



Both siblings survived the Holocaust and grew up on different sides of the Iron Curtain, not knowing the fate of the other.



But after 66 years apart, Famulak, 83, was reunited with her long lost 73-year-old brother, Wssewolod Galezkij. They held each other close this time, cherishing the moment.  Watch siblings hug for first time in seven decades »



"I don't believe anyone has ever known such happiness. Now, I truly believe I can die satisfied," Galezkij said.



Famulak made the long journey to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after being contacted by the American Red Cross. The organization told her they had located her only surviving sibling.



Famulak said she spent World War II in a labor camp in Munich, Germany, working in the kitchens. She had been taken to the camp with her older sister. When it was liberated in 1945, Famulak stayed in Germany for several years, eventually emigrating to the United States in 1956.



She never saw her parents again after that day in 1942 when Nazis separated her from her family. She and her brother still have no idea what happened to their mother and father. Some of their siblings lived through the war, but later died; others, they never heard from again after being separated.



But her younger brother never gave up hope of tracking his sister down. He, too, was sent to a German labor camp, but after the war, he moved back to Ukraine, then a republic of the Soviet Union.  See photos of the "needle in haystack" reunion »



Under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, information on lost relatives was kept sealed, and Galezkij said it wasn't until reforms in the late 1980s, followed by the Soviet collapse, that he started making progress in finding his sister.



Even then, it took him more than 17 years to locate her in the United States. He broke down in tears as he spoke of his overwhelming happiness at finding her.



"When the Red Cross told me they had found her in America, it was such a joy," he said, sobbing.



In fact, he had to be taken to the hospital because he was so overcome when he first learned she was alive. At this week's reunion, there was a doctor on hand at the airport as a precaution.



Back in the United States, there were tears, too.



Linda Klein, the director of the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center, said the volunteer who helped the siblings find each other got caught up in the emotion herself.



"When I showed her the picture, she stood there and wept," Klein said. "She was beside herself."



Klein's group has reunited 1,500 families since it began work in 1990. She said the former Soviet Union released records in 1989 of concentration camps it liberated, greatly helping organizers find information on Holocaust victims.



The organization has 100 volunteers -- a third of them Holocaust survivors, Klein said. The group also helps families find information about their loved ones who died during the Holocaust. They have
Who helped bring them together? When were the siblings separated? what did the brother say Who met for the first time? what did the American Red Cross volunteer do What separated them? What group separated the brother and  sister? since when did the brother and sister not meet Where did they meet? What year did the brother and  sister get separated?
volunteer 1942 he doesn't like kisses." A frail Irene Famulak clutched her brother on the airport tarmac, her arm helped the siblings find each other Nazis took her to a labor camp. Nazis 1942 airport tarmac, 1942
question: Who helped bring them together?, answer: volunteer | question: When were the siblings separated?, answer: 1942 | question: what did the brother say, answer: he doesn't like kisses." | question: Who met for the first time?, answer: A frail Irene Famulak clutched her brother on the airport tarmac, her arm | question: what did the American Red Cross volunteer do, answer: helped the siblings find each other | question: What separated them?, answer: Nazis took her to a labor camp. | question: What group separated the brother and  sister?, answer: Nazis | question: since when did the brother and sister not meet, answer: 1942 | question: Where did they meet?, answer: airport tarmac, | question: What year did the brother and  sister get separated?, answer: 1942