Their escape route took them first to Vienna and then to Italy, where they were stranded as stateless persons for six months. As emigres, they were each allowed to take no more than 40 pounds of possessions and $90 in cash. After years of persistent professional hostility and personal discrimination that she and her family experienced as Jewish citizens of the USSR, four generations of the Shapiro family fled the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. From the outset of the disaster, the Soviet government worsened matters by spreading misinformation and first responders, including Alla, were ordered to partake in the deception of the public. No protocols were in place because no one had anticipated the consequences of a nuclear accident. Shapiro treated traumatized children as she tried to protect her family.
Information about the explosion was withheld from first responders, who were not given basic supplies, detailed instructions, or protective clothing. Alla Shapiro was a first physician-responder to the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine on April 26, 1986.
