- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Chaim H., who was born in Vatra Dornei, Romania, in 1924, one of three brothers. He recounts attending public and Hebrew school; participating in Zionist youth groups; antisemitic harassment; his mother's death; being sent to live with an uncle in Chernivt︠s︡i; moving to a Zionist agricultural training community; their expulsion and move to Bucharest; Iron Guard violence against Jews; arrest, beatings, then release; moving to Goleț; returning home; deportation with his family in October 1941 to Mohyliv-Podilʹsʹkyĭ via Ataki; transfer to Sledy; slave labor on farms; smuggling food to the Mogilev ghetto; returning to the ghetto; his father's death in December 1942; his brothers' emigration to Palestine; deportation to Tulʹchyn in April 1943; slave labor in a brick factory; assistance from friends when he had typhus; returning to the Mogilev ghetto; a Zionist group meeting every night (they meet often to the present); working with Yitsḥaḳ Artsi organizing orphans; liberation by partisans, then Soviet troops in March 1944; draft into the Soviet military; assignment to work battalions in Smolensk, then Vitsebsk; guarding German POWs; transfer to Polatsk, then Rīga; his superior, a Russian Jew whose family had been killed, shooting Germans for revenge; serving in Kaliningrad, Klaipėda, Daugavpils, and Warsaw; demobilization; returning to Chernivt︠s︡i; searching for relatives (they had been killed); traveling to Bucharest; reunion with Hechalutz members; living in Rădăuți; working as a Zionist representative in Bukovina; organizing illegal emigration to Palestine in Brașov; illegal emigration to Palestine in 1946; marriage to a survivor in 1947; joining the Haganah, then Palmaḥ; serving in the Israel-Arab war; and the births of two children. Mr. H. discusses sharing his experiences with his daughter and Israelis' lack of interest in his experiences until recently.
- Author/Creator
- H., Chaim, 1924-
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1992
- Interview Date
- June 26 and July 3, 1992.
- Locale
- Ukraine
Mohyliv-Podilʹsʹkyĭ
Israel
Romania
Vatra Dornei (Romania)
Chernivt︠s︡i (Ukraine)
Bucharest (Romania)
Goleț (Romania)
Ataki (Moldova)
Sledy (Ukraine)
Mohyliv-Podilʹsʹkyĭ (Ukraine)
Smolensk (Russia)
Vitsebsk (Belarus)
Polatsk (Belarus)
Rīga (Latvia)
Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ, Russia)
Klaipėda (Lithuania)
Daugavpils (Latvia)
Warsaw (Poland)
Rădăuți (Romania)
Bukovina (Romania and Ukraine)
Brașov (Romania)
Palestine
ʻAtlit (Israel)
- Cite As
- Chaim H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3375). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Hebrew.
