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Oral history interview with Ivan Cherednichenko

Oral History

Ivan Cherednichenko, born in 1929 in Sheptuhovka in the former Soviet Union, describes his unsuccessful attempts to flee Novominskaya with his mother at the approach of German forces; working with his mother on a state owned farm in Novominskaya; living in a barrack with Jewish women and children who had been evacuated from Leningrad and other cities in the west; witnessing the beating of Jewish residents; seeing Jews on a truck being taken away and hearing gunfire a short time later; his mother's work as a cook in a camp for Soviet prisoners of war; discovering with his friends a shallow ditch in which there were many dead bodies; and the willingness of local citizens to collaborate with German authorities.

Oral history interview with Irina Rubanova-Talant

Oral History

Irina Aleksandrovna Rubanova-Talant, born in 1933 in Krasnodar in the former Soviet Union, describes the arrival of German forces in August 1942; widespread arrests, many as a result of information supplied by local residents; the instruction for Jews to assemble on August 12, 1942; the belief among the Jews that they were being taken to a ghetto which was to be established on the outskirts of the city; the transport of Jews, including her father, to a small wooded area where they were shot; her survival along with her mother; the site of the massacre and the piles of partially burnt clothes and other belongings there; her time in hiding with her mother and with various Jewish and non-Jewish families; the arrival in February 1943 of Soviet soldiers; witnessing the hanging of several local townspeople who collaborated with the Germans; her frequent visits to the site of the massacre with her mother to pay their respects; finding out long after the war that her mother had been a Jew whose maiden name was Reznikova; and her assertion that the dark history of Krasnodar’s occupation should not be forgotten.

Oral history interview with Ljudmila Vasiljeva

Oral History

Lyudmila Grigorievna Vasileva, born in 1931 near Bobruysk in Belarus, discusses her experiences as a forced laborer in Belarus, Poland, and Germany; the beginning of the German occupation in 1942; the transport of women and children to a camp which was operated by policemen; contracting typhus; her transfer to a camp near the town of Dvoryaninovichi; hiding while on a work detail and watching the shooting of other prisoners; her transfer to Majdanek concentration camp in 1943; medical experiments at Majdanek; her work sorting mounds of human hair, toys, and clothes; her transport to Dessau, where she labored in a parts factory; being wounded during an Allied bombing attack; her time in Ebersbach where she worked in a knitting mill and in Crimmitschau where she worked in a military factory; her time in various concentration camps and the harsh conditions she endured; her liberation in 1945; and being taken by Soviet forces to a transit camp and then to Bobruysk.

Oral history interview with Marija Vaganova

Oral History

Mariya Vaganova, born in 1918 in Novopokrovska in the former Soviet Union, describes the persecution of Jews following the invasion of German forces; witnessing the arrival of a transport to a nearby ditch; hiding among the crops and hearing gunfire; watching after the departure of the truck as three elderly Russian men covered the ditch; the absence of clothing or other personal items near the ditch; and her realization that the shooting involved the murder of children from the Jewish school.

Oral history interview with Aleksandra Hohlova

Oral History

Aleksandra Petrovna Khokhlova, born in 1931 in the former Soviet Union, describes bombings at the beginning of the war; the lack of Jews in Novopokrovskiy before the war; Jews who sought refuge in her town; the hiding of Jews with various Russian families and schools; the arrival of German troops in 1942 and their confiscation of food from local townspeople; the roundup of hundreds of Jews and their confinement at the school; witnessing Jews being taken to gassing trucks; learning about the murder of Jews from a Russian policeman; seeing the site of the mass shooting; hearing the shooting of Soviet prisoners of war near Novopokrovskiy by German soldiers; the hanging of a Russian police commandant after the return of Soviet troops; and the imprisonment of collaborators who returned to Novopokrovskiy after the war.

Oral history interview with Nionila Timoshenko

Oral History

Nionila S. Timoshenko, born in 1925 in Ust-Labinsk in the former Soviet Union, describes Jewish refugees in the town who fled approaching German forces; her family’s aid to a Jewish refugee; the arrival of German forces; the massacre of approximately 500 Jewish boys in her town; a German officer who billeted in her house; the German officer’s proposal to her, which included gifts of items most likely taken from Jews; young women who lived with German soldiers and residents who welcomed the German occupation; the local police, many of whom were Cossacks; and the post-war memorialization of the massacre site.

Oral history interview with Boris Novikov

Oral History

Boris Ivanovich Novikov, born in 1930 in Ust-Labinsk in the former Soviet Union, describes the arrival of German forces in 1942; joining a group of homeless boys who roamed the town searching for food and shelter; seeing a column of about 100 Jews marching to a nearby fortress and hearing reports about other such columns; the sound of gunshots at the fortress area; and seeing a ditch, surrounded by German soldiers and Russian police officers, filled with hundreds of bodies.

Oral history interview with Evgeny Rtistshev

Oral History

Evgeniy Ivanovich Rtishchev, born in 1927 in Mostovskoy in the former Soviet Union, describes the Jewish refugees from Ukraine who arrived prior to the German occupation; a Jewish family who lived in his building for about a month; witnessing the murder of a partisan member; watching approximately 30 Jewish men, women, and children being loaded into a wagon guarded by two armed German soldiers; following the wagon to the Laba River; watching from a nearby knoll as some Jews were handed shovels and ordered to dig a pit; hearing someone shout a warning in Russian, then watching as the two German soldiers shot all the Jews with automatic rifles; and the burial of the bodies in the pit.

Oral history interview with Raisa Kurganova

Oral History

Raisa Zakharovna Kurganova, born in 1935 in Psebay in the former Soviet Union, describes the arrival of Jewish refugees fleeing from German forces; two Jewish families who sought refuge in the house of her family; the arrival of German forces; the mistreatment of residents by local police; standing on a bank of the Laba River and watching as German soldiers threw Jews into the river and shot them; receiving a warning from a German soldier which helped her sister, a member of the Komsomol, avoid arrest; betrayal by local residents who turned in Komsomol members to German authorities; and gas vans used by Germans soldiers.

Oral history interview with Prokofiy Rogachev

Oral History

Prokofiy Ivanovich Rogachev, born in 1927 in Rybinka in the former Soviet Union, describes working on a collective farm in Stalingradskaya oblast; digging trenches outside the city of Stalingrad in 1942; working on a collective farm in the area of Ternovka beginning in 1943; and digging up the bones and skulls of 68 people, which were reportedly the remains of 67 Jews and one Russian killed by the Germans in November 1943 near the Laba River.

Oral history interview with Jakov Struchalin

Oral History

Yakov Semyonovich Struchalin, born in 1932 in Petropavlovskaya in the former Soviet Union, describes the prewar Jewish population of his village; the arrival of German forces and the quartering of some of them in his home; watching from his house as an enclosed German truck full of people drove to a clay pit where the people were shot; reports that the victims were mainly Jews, some of whom had come from Odessa and Kishinev; his community and the persecution it suffered under the Germans; local collaborators; the account of a Jewish boy who was captured by a German soldier and shot, but survived; and a trial of collaborators held in Petropavlovskaya in 1967.

Oral history interview with Ljubov N. Bordunova

Oral History

Ljubov N. Bordunova, born in 1929 in Petropavlovskaya, Russia, discusses the mass killing of Jews in a nearby brick factory; being taken to the killing site by her school’s principal so that students could see the atrocities committed by fascists; seeing the remains of bodies being pulled out of the furnace to be buried in a large pit; local police who aided the Germans in the roundup and murder of Jews; the postwar incarceration of Russians who worked for German authorities; and the deportation and murder of Romani peoples.

Oral history interview with Mariya Kushnir

Oral History

Mariya Kushnir, born in 1926 in Kantemirovka, Russia, discusses her childhood in Novostsherbinovskaya (possibly Novostepanovskiĭ, Russia); the order by German authorities for the town’s Jews to gather at the cinema under the deception that they would be resettled in a homeland; the participation of Russian policeman in the roundup of the Jewish population; the removal of Jewish children who were possibly electrocuted and then thrown into cars; the mass killing of the area’s Jewish population and burial in large pits; the looting of Jewish belongings from the cinema by locals; seeing her Jewish girlfriends at the killing site; two men who escaped the killing and joined the partisans; hiding the Goldenberg family in her home; the death of some members of the Goldenberg family when they attempted to return home; burying the Goldenberg family members and showing Mr. Goldenberg the burial site after the war; and her family’s awareness of the danger of helping Jews.

Oral history interview with Aleksandra Shemeneva

Oral History

Aleksandra Shemeneva, born in 1924 and living in Dneprovskaya at the time of the interview, discusses working in the fields when a man in a black uniform exited a truck and shot a group of people, mostly women and children; the pit in which the bodies were buried; learning that the victims were Jewish; and the search of her home by German soldiers.

Oral history interview with Semyon Kolegayev

Oral History

Semyon Kolegayeve, born February 15,1920 in Grivenskaya in the Krasnodar Region, discusses his position as a lieutenant in the Soviet Army in Kharkov; seeing Jewish refugees on his way to Kiev; the bombing of a train traveling from Western Belarus to Urals mountains in September 1941; being taken as a prisoner of war by German forces; the nearby camp for Jewish prisoners; being recruited to serve as a German agent in the rear of the Soviet Army; harsh living conditions, physical abuse, and malnutrition at prisoner of war and labor camps; his training to be a German agent; his multiple escapes from German captivity; his return to the Soviet Army; and several instances of violence against Jews and other civilians.

Oral history interview with Melanya Bushuyeva

Oral History

Melanya Bushuyeva, born in 1922 in the Soviet Union (present day Russia), describes her work as a milkmaid; the arrival of evacuees from Leningrad; the poor treatment of local townspeople by partisans, including instances sexual assault and murder; the actions of local police under the German occupation; the advance of Soviet forces; and the lack of punishment for local collaborators after the war.

Oral history interview with Leontiy Borodavka

Oral History

Leontiy Borodavka, born in 1927 in the Soviet Union (present day Russia), describes the arrival of Romanian soldiers in Rogovskaya in 1943; the murder of Soviet prisoners of war by Romanian soldiers; the murder of a Jewish man; the actions of local partisans; townspeople informing to policmen on the leader of the local partisan group, who was then killed; and the poor treatment of local townspeople by Romanian soldiers, including the theft of food and the rape of women.

Oral history interview with Galina Koroliova

Oral History

Galina Koroliova, born in 1935 in Ardavskoye, Belarus (now in Verkhniadzvinski raion, Belarus), describes being five years old when the war broke out; her memories of the Germans arriving in her town and how they were very friendly and joyous; growing up in a large house and their various kinds of neighbors, including Jews and Romani; the peacefulness of the Germans at first; being injured and treated by a German doctor; the partisans causing trouble for the Nazis resulting in the occupying Germans turning on the people; being kicked out of their homes by German soldiers; the roundup of everyone into a grain shed; how the Germans were very indiscriminate; escaping the shed with her brother and mother along with numerous others; hiding in a large bush in a field; how those who were unable to escape were burned alive inside the shed, including her best friend; the enormous black plume coming from the shed; the Slavic-speaking police officers who helped the Germans round up the townspeople; the survival of only 23 people from Ardavskoye; how after the young men left either to live in the woods or to join the army, the Jewish and Romani population was comprised of only children and the elderly; the destruction during the second summer of the German occupation of Belarus, including the burning of cities and villages; joining a community in the woods with her family and other survivors; a commotion one morning when the Germans were approaching and began shooting at them as they tried to flee; successfully escaping with her family; the gradual return of people to the village in the woods; how bakers made bread for the partisans with the grain they hid away in the ground; the arrival of the Romanians and being forced with her family and the small remaining population into a cellar; the good relations between the village and the freedom fighters; surviving an explosion in the cellar; the nature of her life during the war; how when the Fascists came, the partisans left and when the Fascists left, the partisans came; hiding in a swamp with others and being rounded up and sent to a concentration camp in Borkovichi (Vitebsk voblasts', Belarus); the forcing of the adults to dig trenches each morning while the children were free to do whatever they wanted, including going out into the surrounding town, where they begged for food or stole whatever they could; getting sick with typhus and not remembering how the camp was liberated; surviving villagers returning and being greeted by allied soldiers who had begun liberating Europe; seeing an enormous car by the side of the road just outside of the woods and being terrified as she nudged the bodies of dead German soldiers surrounding the car; not knowing if there were Jewish villagers from other towns in the camp; how there were no Jews left from Ardavskoye; the mass grave in her current town of Sebezh, Russia, where the Jews were massacred during the war; how after the war the massacred Jews were buried properly; the stories she was told about what happened during the war in Sebezh along with what she remembers seeing towards the end of the war; getting to Sebezh in 1944; the fate of the Jewish citizens of Sebezh; smaller stories from life during the war; and communal living during the war.

Oral history interview with Taisiya Korbatova

Oral History

Taisiya Korbatova, born in 1932 in the town Dolgarevo (Sebezh raion, Pskov oblast), Russia, discusses the beginning of the war and her father and uncle serving at the front; her father returning disabled; the arrival of the Germans and their takeover of a small village, Mogilno; how the Ukrainians and Latvians worked for the Germans; the disruptiveness of the partisans; hearing how a coworker survived the murder of a large group of Ukrainians and Latvians by partisans; the Germans arresting and deporting her partisan neighbors to unknown locations; German interrogations of a local woman who was ultimately tortured and killed; her mother baking bread for the partisans despite the threats of violence; being taken with her mother to concentration camps in February 1943; how her mother saved a Jewish grocer from persecution and kept him in the basement for a little more than a year; the events that led to her being placed into a concentration camp in Idritsa, Russia and the separation process; life in the camp, including the presence of typhus, the frequency of death, and the camp hospital; breaking her arm in the camp; being forced to walk to the camp in Sebezh; her memories of liberation; being helped by two partisan boys to get out of Sebezh into a safe zone; the battle along the way out of Sebezh and the wounding of her mother, who was taken to a hospital in Velikiye Luki, Russia; the fate of her uncle; and returning home with her parents and rebuilding their house.

Oral history interview with Vera Moskovkina

Oral History

Vera Moskovkina, born March 13, 1929 in Smolensk, Russia, discusses her mother's numerous Jewish friends (including Lilya Estrina and Faina Arkadyevna Karbalenkova); the beginning of WWII and being injured during the bombing of Smolensk; the Jewish ghetto in Smolensk; seeing Jews wearing yellow stars on their clothing; life under the German occupation; her mother’s friend, Lilya Estrina, who was among the first people to be arrested; hiding her mother’s friend Faina Arkadyevna and her daughter in the basement under their room for over a year; witnessing as Faina and her daughter, Alya, were arrested by the Germans and never knowing what happened to them; being taken with her mother to a camp in Orsha, Belarus when she was 14 years old and her mother was 34; being taken a few months later to Minsk, Belarus and from there in cattle cars to Germany for forced labor; being held in the Dabendorf camp and forced to clean the railroad after the Allied bombings; building a secret railroad; the prisoners in the camp, none of whom were Jewish and included Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian women and their teenage children; and being liberated from the camp on April 22, 1945.

Oral history interview with Yevgeniy Vakulyuk

Oral History

Yevgeniy Vakulyuk, born September 24, 1930 in Smolensk, Russia, describes being in a summer camp when the war began; evacuating with his family to Moscow, Russia then Yelnya, Russia; the bombing of their train during the journey; being sent to Minskaya highway, from which they drove to Dukhovshchina then walked to Smolensk; his father, Ivan Romanovich Vakulyuk, who was Russian, and his mother, Kotchurina Esfir Ilyinichna, who was a Jew; identifying as Russian; living with his mother in the Jewish ghetto; conditions in the ghetto; a man in the ghetto who maintained a record of the deaths from typhus; his mother’s work on the railroad as well as a nurse to the sick; receiving food coupons; Jews having to wear round, yellow patches on their left sleeves; attending school in 1941 for a short time; Burgomaster Mishanin ordered Jews to cut off their fur collars in the winter of 1942; the taxation system; having to give rooms in their home to Germans; the liquidation of the ghetto during the night of July 15, during which the people in the ghetto were put in trucks and gassed; seeing the trucks (called “dushegubkas”) earlier in the day in town; his mother’s death in a gas van; the Jews who survived the liquidation; the mass burial of the dead in Vezovenki; seeing a large column of captive Poles in Smolensk; the collection of corpses in Smolensk; being wounded by a grenade while another child played with it; two boys dying while playing with explosives; the gallows that were built on Kolkhoznaya Square when Smolensk was liberated; working as a trumpeter at Dnepropetrovsk Opera after the war and his Jewish colleagues; and seeing antisemitism in Kiev, Ukraine and Smolensk.

Oral history interview with Sergey Panus

Oral History

Sergey Panus, born in 1928 in Surazh, Russia, describes his childhood; the Jewish community in Surazh; the Jewish-owned businesses, including the mill, two sausage factories, and a cheese factory; his grandmother working as a cook for a wealthy Jewish family; learning German from a private tutor; his sister, Yekaterina, and her friendship with the Jewish Yuzovich family; Yekaterina attending a special NKVD school to improve her German and learn military vocabulary, Morse code, and encryption; the evacuation of Jews from Surazh to Klintsy at the beginning of the war; the German occupation beginning August 17, 1941 when he was 14 years old, his older sister was 17, and his younger sister was 12; his father being recruited to the army; Jews having to wear yellow fabric signs on their clothing; being told by his sister that he was going to work as a messenger for the partisans; his sister’s work with the partisans; being supervised by Kostyanoy Grigoriy Mikhailovich from Oryol, Russia; his mother's recruitment into the partisans; his younger sister working as a hospital nurse; the relocation of Jews into a ghetto; a man (Lukyanets Nikolay Nikolayevich) who was sent by partisans to work in the police undercover; the lack of food in the ghetto; healthy Jews being taken to a German hospital to donate blood; being detained by the Gestapo for a week and severely beaten for possessing an anti-Nazi leaflet; the looting of Jewish belongings by the poor; the execution of Jews (approximately 500 people, including 260 local Jews and Jews from Belarus) on March 27, 1942; details on the massacre and taking pictures of the column of people; seeing the execution site on the fourth day; some Jews hiding in the village; witnessing the execution of a man for breaking curfew; policemen moving into Jewish houses; the demographics of the police; 37 policemen being put to trial in early 1944; his sister Katya being awarded the Red Star; and being awarded a Distinguished Service Medal.

Oral history interview with Valentina Bashkevich

Oral History

Valentina Bashkevich, born in 1927 in Surazh, Russia, describes how in 1941 she was finishing the sixth grade in the village of Dalisichi, where her family had a second home; the numerous Jews living in Surazh before the war and the evacuation of many Jews at the beginning of the war; her father’s friendship with local Jews; her mother helping an elderly Jewish man (Pinka Zalmanovich Gureyev) who did not evacuate; the relocation of Jews to the ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow fabric on their clothing; a Jewish man who regularly took off his yellow patch and went to their home in the evening to get milk for his newborn child; bringing milk to the mother of the baby in the morning; the mass execution in Surazh in March 1942; being told about the massacre the Jewish man, to whom they gave milk, and how he survived the massacre; helping the man hide; the rounded up of Jews from the village in the summer and telling the Solomon children to hide in the bushes; helping two women from a town in Belarus, where Jews had already been murdered; Jewish houses being given to newly arrived people in the village; and being liberated by partisans right before the Red Army arrived.

Oral history interview with Mariya Shirokova

Oral History

Mariya Shirokova, born in 1931 in Novozybkov, Russia, describes her life before the war started; her mother, who was a technician; her father, who died in the war; their Jewish neighbors; the fleeing of many Jews before the Germans arrived; the Germans forcing the remaining Jews to leave their homes and sending them to an unknown location; the participation of the local police officers in the deportation of Jews; seeing the deportation of the Jews, many of whom she knew personally; her Jewish friend, Sima; hearing about the execution of Jews nearby; the boarding up of Jewish homes; the Germans often causing trouble for the civilians; her friendship with Sima; and how the war came through Novozybkov.

Oral history interview with Larisa Antonova

Oral History

Larisa Antonova, born in 1930, in Novozybkov, Russia, describes her life before the war; the numerous Jews in the town; the beginning of the war; the evacuation of some of the Jewish residents, while others were forced to stay in the town; her interactions with the Jewish children in the community; how the Jews had to wear yellow stars on their backs, but were allowed to stay in their own homes; seeing three sleds full of Jewish men, women, and children being taken to the woods to be killed; witnessing the massacre; a young boy who was able to escape, but was too scared to accept any help from Larisa’s grandmother; how, after the killings in the woods, there were no more Jews in Novozybkov; the police officers in charge robbing the Jews of their belongings; hearing stories of the partisans causing trouble for the Germans; hearing stories of Jews having to give up their valuables and belongings; the accidental shooting of a 17 year old girl by Germans; the Germans’ protocol to shoot partisans and anybody who involved themselves with the partisans in any way; the signs around the city that warned of capital punishments for hiding Jews and partisans; moving into her aunt and uncle’s home during the war; and the aerial bombing of Novozybkov by the Germans and the death of many people after a train station was struck.

Oral history interview with Tamara Suschenkova

Oral History

Tamara Suschenkova, born in 1928, in Starodub, Bryansk oblast, Russia, discusses growing up in Starodub and her Jewish neighbors; her father’s death during the war; hearing stories of prisoner-of-war camps; the murder and mass burial of many of their Jewish neighbors in Belovshchina (now part of Starodub); the atrocities that the Germans and police officers committed to the Jews; how the police officers confiscated milk from her mother and her given the homes of their Jewish neighbors; being nearly killed by an SS officer because he thought she was Jewish and being saved by her mother; trying to find moments to enjoy life during the war; her Jewish classmates who perished; Jews having to wear a specific mark distinguishing them; being kicked out of their homes; being forced to leave the city with the Germans to act as shields; the execution of those who stopped; seeing the Russian planes overhead; escaping with her mother and sisters as the Russian Army approached; going to Novozybkov, Russia, where the girls were welcomed with open arms; and finishing school and becoming a teacher.

Oral history interview with Margarita Bavkunova

Oral History

Margarita Bavkunova, born in 1932 in Starodub, Russia, discusses the numerous Jewish families living in Starodub before the war; their Jewish neighbors, the Mankovskiy family; the beginning of the war and her father being recruited to the army; hiding from the bombings in a dugout in their yard; the arrival of the Germans and the taking of the locals’ food; the occupation of the Mankovskiys’ house by the SS; being bitten by one of the SS dogs; watching as Jews were taken to an execution site near the river; the imprisonment of Jews and communists in a shed for five days before they were all shot in Belovshchina (now part of Starodub); seeing the burial pit the following day; hearing later that the victims of the execution dug the pit before being shot; how after the execution people from her street hid a Jewish boy (Yasha), passing him from house to house; the betrayal of hidden Jews; life during the occupation; her mother hiding a cow in the forest; how when the Germans were withdrawing, they used locals as a shield from Soviet air attacks; being forced with her mother and sister to walk for three days; and the destruction of their home.

Oral history interview with Raisa Arshanskaya

Oral History

Raisa Arshanskaya, born in 1933 in Starodub, Russia, describes living in Zakholevichi, Russia then Klintsy, Russia; her Jewish mother and her Russian-Lithuanian-German father; being the only Jews on their street; experiencing antisemitism; the beginning of the war and the bombing of their town; the recruiting of her father into the army; the round up of Romanies; having to wear yellow fabric sewn to their clothing; being imprisoned with her mother; being rescued by a policeman named Sergey; the execution of her mother on December 5, 1941; staying with the policeman’s family for two months; staying with the Kapralov family; the hanging of the policeman who betrayed she and her mother; the mass execution in Klintsy, during which she heard shooting for several days; and the looting of Jewish belongings after the execution.

Oral history interview with Klaudiya Prilashkevich

Oral History

Klavdiya Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Smolensk oblast, Russia, discusses her Jewish neighbors, the Reykhel family; her father, who was a butcher and was friends with Jews; her father’s activities in the army during the war and his friendship with Meylikh, a famous Jewish blacksmith, with whom he escaped capture; the two-year German occupation; the execution of her father’s three sisters (Lida, Vasya, and Alina) and their families on August 21, 1943 for working against the Germans; her father’s attempts to remove the bodies and bury his family properly; the relocation of the Jews to a ghetto soon after the occupation began; Jews having to wear yellow patches; the looting of Jewish homes; the execution of Jews soon after her aunts were murdered; witnessing the roundup and march of the Jews to the execution site; hearing the shooting and shouting; witnessing with her sister and friend as the first 15 to 20 people were executed then running away; her father burying Meylikh after his death; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; and how after the war Soviets hanged Lyubavichi policemen (Zharkin Kirill, Zharkin Ivan Grishka, Pecherskiy Yefim) and servants (Astrakhanskiy Nikolay) who helped Germans. [Note that part of the interview takes place at the site of the mass murder of Jews.]

Oral history interview with Valentina Prilashkevich

Oral History

Valentina Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Russia, discusses the Jewish community in Lyubavichi and the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; her parents and two sisters; their Jewish neighbor (Kiva Zibelbord); the German occupation beginning in 1941; the relocation of Jews to a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow patches; witnessing with her sister (Klavdiya Prilashkevich, RG-50.653*0031) as Jews were rounded up and shot; recognizing many of the Jews, including Doba, Zyama Raykhlin, and Yuliy Borisovich (her teacher); Jews being forced to put their belongings on a yellow tablecloth on the ground next to the pit before they were shot; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; the story of her father’s Jewish friend Meylikh, who returned from the army, found that all his family was gone, and was killed soon after; and the four local policemen hanged by the Soviets at the town center after the war. [Note that part of the interview takes place at the site of the mass murder of Jews.]

Oral history interview with Zoya Baburchenkova

Oral History

Zoya Baburchenkova, born in 1932 in Vyazoiki, Russia, discusses moving with her family to Kapustino in 1939; the Jews in the neighboring town, Rudnya; seeing Jews (collected from Rudnya, nearby areas, as well as Belarus) brought in an open truck to a trench and shot in groups; several more groups being brought to the site and executed during a week’s time; the looting of some Jewish belongings; the prison in their village that housed Russians who worked at the swamp; the cruelty of the Vlasovtsy (Russian Liberation Army); and a German corpse that was left on the road for a long time and seeing young people passing by and hitting his body.

Oral history interview with Zinaida Golovacheva

Oral History

Zinaida Golovacheva, born in 1930 in the village of Vyazoiki, Russia, discusses living in Kapustino (possibly Khalyutino), Russia during the war; the numerous Jews in the neighboring town, Rudnya; the beginning of the war; her father joining the army while her mother took care of the four children; the German occupation and the round up of Jews; Jews having to wear yellow patches on their sleeves; the execution of Jews beginning in the summer of 1941; seeing people brought to the execution site by truck and murdered with machine guns; hearing the shots and people screaming; the executions taking place over several days; how the last person to be murdered there was Korotchenko, whom people said was a policeman and helped Germans execute Jews; seeing bodies at the execution site, which was a pit; the local camp that held approximately 100 prisoners, who worked extracting swamp peat for fuel; a camp worker who killed a police-guard (Yurka) for criticizing the quality of his work; the cruelty of the Vlasovtsy (Russian Liberation Army); and how only four Jewish men with their families returned to Rudnya after the war.

Oral history interview with Elena Matveyeva

Oral History

Elena Matveyeva, born in 1931, in Velizh, Russia, describes her life before the war; living with her aunt and her family; the numerous Jewish residents living in Velizh and having good interactions with them; befriending a Jewish family that lived across the street from her family; how many of the Jews in Velizh left before the Germans arrived; the beginning of the war and her father being taken away; the bombing of Velizh two weeks after the war started; escaping with her family to a small village for a short time and moving back to Velizh; how the Jewish population began wearing the yellow markers and the Germans forced Gentile men and Jews to hard labor; the forced relocation of Jews to a ghetto that was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Germans and local police; the post-war trials of the local police who guarded the ghettos; the large fire in the ghetto during the winter and seeing Jews being shot as they tried to escape; hearing that many Jewish families played dead in the snow to avoid execution; a German bringing a young Jewish boy her family the night after the fire; taking care of the boy for a single day before he left to find his own people; many Jews being protected and saved by Russians in Velizh; locals moving into the abandoned Jewish homes and also burning down homes to avoid letting the Germans have any supplies; returning to Velizh from Belarus in 1944 during liberation to see an overgrown foundation of a city; how the Germans kicked all of the residents out of their homes and into jail in Velizh; the residents being taken at night to Belarus over the frozen river by horse; how all the men were gone from the city and only women, children, and teens remained; being happy to be away from the war zone; having to live in the basement while tanks and artillery were being fired upon the house; being warned by Russian soldiers to leave or the Germans would end up killing them and having nowhere to run to; hearing accounts of the atrocities of the Germans towards the remaining locals; how at first the Jews in the ghetto were allowed to leave and return and they were allowed to bury their dead in the graveyard; the death of many Jews from hunger; seeing a large pile of dead bodies after the fire in Velizh when the firefights and artillery battle was ensuing; and seeing a dead child frozen in the river.

Oral history interview with Aleksandr Bordyukov

Oral History

Aleksandr Bordyukov, born in 1928 in Velizh, Russia, discusses the large Jewish population in Velizh before the war; the restrictions on Jews; living in a Jewish-Russian neighborhood; the relations between Jews and non-Jews; the nine synagogues in Velizh; how mixed marriages were normal; how Jews were craftsmen (shoemakers, tailors, watchmakers), musicians, and tradesmen; his Jewish classmates, including Klara Lesina, Isaak Moiseyev, and Vera Sokolova; the bombing at the beginning of the war; the Jewish families who fled or stayed; the suicides of some local Jews; Jews being forced to do labor; the creation of a ghetto on Zhgutovskogo Street; the local police, including Filatov, Kiriyenok, Sychyov; how almost none of his classmates died in the ghetto; the shooting execution of 150 Jewish men from Velizh and Surazh in October 1941 in Kurmeli village and witnessing it from a nearby field; seeing the ghetto being burnt during the night of January 28, 1942 and the killing of 700-800 Jews; leaving town the next day because his street was on fire; returning to Velizh in 1943 after the town was liberated; Russian people settling in Jewish houses; people being hanged for their connections to the partisans; the lack of Jews in Velizh after the war; and helping to raise money in the 1960s for a memorial to the ghetto victims.

Oral history interview with Yevgeniya Yershova

Oral History

Yevgeniya Yershova, born in 1931, in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Usvyatsky District, Russia, describes her life before the war; the relatively large Jewish population in her town; her father’s Jewish friends; how the Jewish children tended not to play with Gentile children; the beginning of the war and how the Jews remained in their homes; the relocation of the Jews into a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow markers; hearing about the round up the Jewish residents by the Germans; the shooting of Jews who tried to escape the ghetto; how her father was told to bury all of the Jews that had been executed within the ghetto; being told by her father that not everyone who was buried was dead; the indiscriminate shooting of people; how her father knew many of the victims; never going to see the murder site; how the Russians returned to their homes, which were taken for the ghetto, after the mass murder of the Jewish residents; seeing a Jewish man hanging near her sister’s house; how there was no real violence towards the local Gentile population; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty.

Oral history interview with Zoya Semionova

Oral History

Zoya Semionova, born in 1932 in Dvorets, Russia, discusses growing up in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Russia; the Jewish students in her classroom before the war; the Jewish community; the good relations between the Jews and non-Jews; the arrival of the Germans; local men hiding grain; the execution of her father after he was accused of hiding grain; the creation of a ghetto in Usvyaty and the relocation of Jews and non-Jews; the hiding of Jews by local families; seeing the execution of Jews briefly; returning to the execution site after the shooting was over and seeing people who were half-alive in a pit; seeing two hanged people, a Jew and a partisan; the execution of a local photographer, Khrapkov, because he was Jewish; leaving Usvyaty with her family when the bombings and battles began; returning in 1944; police officer who was tried for crimes after the war; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty after the war.

Oral history interview with Zinaida Malashonor

Oral History

Zinaida Pavlovna Malashonor (Leontieva), born in 1929 in Sebezh, Russia, discusses her memories of life before the war; how the Jewish and Russian families lived on the same street, and all the children went to the same school and played together; Jews usually working in small shops; the beginning of the war at which time many families including younger Jewish families evacuated, while older Jews and one family with pregnant wife stayed in the village; her memories of villagers, including children, being forced to do hard physical jobs; Jews being forced to clean the ice on the lake, which was very dangerous; the massacre of all the Jews one day in the winter of 1942 (this included 20 people from her street); the gathering of the Jews by the local Russian policemen across the frozen lake, near the Jewish cemetery, where the Jews were shot; the burial of the Jews in a freshly dug ditch after which the area was set on fire, this was to prevent anyone from counting the dead; hearing rumors that a young boy named Boris hid inside a chimney during the roundup and ran across the lake to the neighboring village, but then Germans found him and killed him; the plundering of the Jews’ homes after the massacre by Russian police; the Germans publicly hanging partisans and their contacts, after which they plundered and burned their houses; being arrested and sent to the basement full of other people; being sent to a slaughterhouse; experiencing starvation and sometimes they had nothing else but dirty potatoes to eat; liberation, after which the policemen who worked for the Germans were charged and sent to prison for 15-20 years, though some of the Estonians from the “death squads” and a few Russian policemen escaped.

Oral history interview with Polina Sinitsina

Oral History

Research interview with Galina Koroliova

Oral History

Galina Koroliova, born in 1935 in Ardavskoye, Belarus (now in Verkhniadzvinski raion, Belarus), describes being five years old when the war broke out; her memories of the Germans arriving in her town and how they were very friendly and joyous; the roundup of everyone into a grain shed; escaping the shed with her brother and mother along with numerous others; hiding in a large bush in a field; how those who were unable to escape were burned alive inside the shed, including her best friend; the enormous black plume coming from the shed; the Slavic-speaking police officers who helped the Germans round up the townspeople; the survival of only 23 people from Ardavskoye; how after the young men left either to live in the woods or to join the army, the Jewish and Romani population was comprised of only children and the elderly; the destruction during the second summer of the German occupation of Belarus, including the burning of cities and villages; joining a community in the woods with her family and other survivors; a commotion one morning when the Germans were approaching and began shooting at them as they tried to flee; successfully escaping with her family; the gradual return of people to the village in the woods; how bakers made bread for the partisans with the grain they hid away in the ground; the arrival of the Romanians and being forced with her family and the small remaining population into a cellar; the good relations between the village and the freedom fighters; surviving an explosion in the cellar; the nature of her life during the war; how when the Fascists came, the partisans left and when the Fascists left, the partisans came; the forcing of the adults to dig trenches each morning while the children were free to do whatever they wanted, including going out into the surrounding town, where they begged for food or stole whatever they could; getting sick with typhus and not remembering how the camp was liberated; surviving villagers returning and being greeted by allied soldiers who had begun liberating Europe; seeing an enormous car by the side of the road just outside of the woods and being terrified as she nudged the bodies of dead German soldiers surrounding the car; not knowing if there were Jewish villagers from other towns in the camp; how there were no Jews left from Ardavskoye; and the mass grave in her current town of Sebezh, Russia, where the Jews were massacred during the war.

Research interview with Vera Moskoukina

Oral History

Vera Moskoukina, born March 13, 1929 in Smolensk, Russia, discusses her mother’s numerous Jewish friends (including Lilya Estrina and Faina Arkadyevna Karbalenkova); the beginning of WWII and being injured during the bombing of Smolensk; the Jewish ghetto in Smolensk; seeing Jews wearing yellow stars on their clothing; life under the German occupation; her mother’s friend, Lilya Estrina, who was among the first people to be arrested; hiding her mother’s friend Faina Arkadyevna and her daughter in the basement under their room for over a year; witnessing as Faina and her daughter, Alya, were arrested by the Germans and never knowing what happened to them; being taken with her mother to a camp in Orsha, Belarus when she was 14 years old and her mother was 34; being taken a few months later to Minsk, Belarus and from there in cattle cars to Germany for forced labor; being held in the Dabendorf camp and forced to clean the railroad after the Allied bombings; building a secret railroad; the prisoners in the camp, none of whom were Jewish and included Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian women and their teenage children; and being liberated from the camp on April 22, 1945.

Research interview with Sergey Panus

Oral History

Sergey Panus, born in 1928 in Surazh, Russia, describes his childhood; the Jewish community in Surazh; the Jewish-owned businesses, including the mill, two sausage factories, and a cheese factory; his grandmother working as a cook for a wealthy Jewish family; learning German from a private tutor; his sister, Yekaterina, and her friendship with the Jewish Yuzovich family; Yekaterina attending a special NKVD school to improve her German and learn military vocabulary, Morse code, and encryption; the evacuation of Jews from Surazh to Klintsy at the beginning of the war; the German occupation beginning August 17, 1941 when he was 14 years old, his older sister was 17, and his younger sister was 12; his father being recruited to the army; Jews having to wear yellow fabric signs on their clothing; being told by his sister that he was going to work as a messenger for the partisans; his sister’s work with the partisans; being supervised by Kostyanoy Grigoriy Mikhailovich from Oryol, Russia; his mother’s recruitment into the partisans; the relocation of Jews into a ghetto; a man (Lukyanets Nikolay Nikolayevich) who was sent by partisans to work in the police undercover; the lack of food in the ghetto; healthy Jews being taken to a German hospital to donate blood; being detained by the Gestapo for a week and severely beaten for possessing an anti-Nazi leaflet; the looting of Jewish belongings by the poor; the execution of Jews (approximately 500 people, including 260 local Jews and Jews from Belarus) on March 27, 1942; details on the massacre; and taking pictures of the column of people.

Research interview with Mariya Shirokova

Oral History

Mariya Shirokova, born in 1931 in Novozybkov, Russia, describes the fleeing of many Jews before the Germans arrived; the Germans forcing the remaining Jews to leave their homes and sending them to an unknown location; the participation of the local police officers in the deportation of Jews; seeing the deportation of the Jews, many of whom she knew personally; hearing about the execution of Jews nearby; the looting of Jewish homes; the Germans often causing trouble for the civilians; and how the war came through Novozybkov.

Research interview with Larisa Antonova

Oral History

Larisa Antonova, born in 1930, in Novozybkov, Russia, describes her life before the war; the numerous Jews in the town; the beginning of the war; the evacuation of some of the Jewish residents, while others were forced to stay in the town; her interactions with the Jewish children in the community; how the Jews had to wear yellow stars on their backs, but were allowed to stay in their own homes; seeing three sleds full of Jewish men, women, and children being taken to the woods to be killed; witnessing the massacre; a young boy who was able to escape, but was too scared to accept any help from Larisa's grandmother; how, after the killings in the woods, there were no more Jews in Novozybkov; the police officers in charge robbing the Jews of their belongings; hearing stories of the partisans causing trouble for the Germans; hearing stories of Jews having to give up their valuables and belongings; the accidental shooting of a 17 year old girl by Germans; the Germans' protocol to shoot partisans and anybody who involved themselves with the partisans in any way; and the signs around the city that warned of capital punishments for hiding Jews and partisans.

Research interview with Tamara Suschenkova

Oral History

Tamara Suschenkova, born in 1928, in Starodub, Bryansk oblast, Russia, discusses growing up in Starodub and her Jewish neighbors; her father's death during the war; hearing stories of prisoner-of-war camps; the murder and mass burial of many of their Jewish neighbors in Belovshchina (now part of Starodub); the atrocities that the Germans and police officers committed to the Jews; being nearly killed by an SS officer because he thought she was Jewish and being saved by her mother; trying to find moments to enjoy life during the war; her Jewish classmates who perished; Jews having to wear a specific mark distinguishing them; being kicked out of their homes; being forced to leave the city with the Germans to act as shields; escaping with her mother and sisters as the Russian Army approached; going to Novozybkov, Russia, where the girls were welcomed with open arms; and finishing school and becoming a teacher.

Research interview with Margarita Bavkunova

Oral History

Margarita Bavkunova, born in 1932 in Starodub, Russia, discusses the numerous Jewish families living in Starodub before the war; their Jewish neighbors, the Mankovskiy family; hiding from the bombings in a dugout in their yard; the arrival of the Germans and the taking of the locals' food; the occupation of the Mankovskiys' house by the SS; being bitten by one of the SS dogs; watching as Jews were taken to an execution site near the river; the imprisonment of Jews and communists in a shed for five days before they were all killed in Belovshchina (now part of Starodub); seeing the burial pit the following day; hearing later that the victims of the execution dug the pit before being shot; how after the execution people from her street hid a Jewish boy (Yasha), passing him from house to house; the betrayal of hidden Jews; life during the occupation; her mother hiding a cow in the forest; how when the Germans were withdrawing, they used locals as a shield from Soviet air attacks; being forced with her mother and sister to walk for three days; and the destruction of their home.

Research interview with Raisa Arshanskaya

Oral History

Raisa Arshanskaya, born in 1933 in Starodub, Russia, describes living in Zakholevichi, Russia then Klintsy, Russia; her Jewish mother and her Russian-Lithuanian-German father; being the only Jews on their street; experiencing antisemitism; the beginning of the war and the bombing of their town; the recruiting of her father into the army; the round up of Romanies; having to wear yellow fabric sewn to their clothing; being imprisoned with her mother; being rescued by a policeman named Sergey; the execution of her mother on December 5, 1941; staying with the policeman's family for two months; staying with the Kapralov family; the hanging of the policeman who betrayed her and her mother; the mass execution in Klintsy, during which she heard shooting for several days; and the looting of Jewish belongings after the execution.

Research interview with Klaudiya Prilashkevich

Oral History

Klavdiya Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Smolensk oblast, Russia, discusses her Jewish neighbors, the Reykhel family; her father, who was a butcher and was friends with Jews; her father's activities in the army during the war and his friendship with Meylikh, a famous Jewish blacksmith, with whom he escaped capture; the two-year German occupation; the execution of her father's three sisters (Lida, Vasya, and Alina) and their families on August 21, 1943 for working against the Germans; her father's attempts to remove the bodies and bury his family properly; the relocation of the Jews to a ghetto soon after the occupation began; Jews having to wear yellow patches; the looting of Jewish homes; the execution of Jews soon after her aunts were murdered; witnessing the roundup and march of the Jews to the execution site; hearing the shooting and shouting; witnessing with her sister and friend as the first 15 to 20 people were executed then running away; her father burying Meylikh after his death; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; and how after the war Soviets hanged Lyubavichi policemen (Zharkin Kirill, Zharkin Ivan Grishka, Pecherskiy Yefim) and servants (Astrakhanskiy Nikolay) who helped Germans.

Research interview with Valentina Prilashkevich

Oral History

Valentina Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Russia, discusses the Jewish community in Lyubavichi and the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; her parents and two sisters; their Jewish neighbor (Kiva Zibelbord); the German occupation beginning in 1941; the relocation of Jews to a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow patches; witnessing with her sister (Klavdiya Prilashkevich, RG-50.653.0031) as Jews were rounded up and shot; recognizing many of the Jews, including Doba, Zyama Raykhlin, and Yuliy Borisovich (her teacher); Jews being forced to put their belongings on a yellow tablecloth on the ground next to the pit before they were shot; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; the story of her father's Jewish friend Meylikh, who returned from the army, found that all his family was gone, and was killed soon after; and the four local policemen hanged by the Soviets at the town center after the war.

Research interview with Zoya Baburchenkova

Oral History

Zoya Baburchenkova, born in 1932 in Vyazoiki, Russia, discusses moving with her family to Kapustino in 1939; the Jews in the neighboring town, Rudnya; seeing Jews (collected from Rudnya, nearby areas, as well as Belarus) brought in an open truck to a trench and shot in groups; several more groups being brought to the site and executed during a week's time; the looting of some Jewish belongings; the prison in their village that housed Russians who worked at the swamp; the cruelty of the Vlasovtsy (Russian Liberation Army); and a German corpse that was left on the road for a long time and seeing young people passing by and hitting his body.

Research interview with Zinaida Golovacheva

Oral History

Zinaida Golovacheva, born in 1930 in the village of Vyazoiki, Russia, discusses living in Kapustino (possibly Khalyutino), Russia during the war; the numerous Jews in the neighboring town, Rudnya; the beginning of the war; her father joining the army while her mother took care of the four children; the German occupation and the round up of Jews; Jews having to wear yellow patches on their sleeves; the execution of Jews beginning in the summer of 1941; seeing people brought to the execution site by truck and murdered with machine guns; hearing the shots and people screaming; the executions taking place over several days; how the last person to be murdered there was Korotchenko, whom people said was a policeman and helped Germans execute Jews; seeing bodies at the execution site, which was a pit; the local camp that held approximately 100 prisoners, who worked extracting swamp peat for fuel; a camp worker who killed a police-guard (Yurka) for criticizing the quality of his work; the cruelty of the Vlasovtsy (Russian Liberation Army); and how only four Jewish men with their families returned to Rudnya after the war.

Research interview with Elena Matveyeva

Oral History

Elena Matveyeva, born in 1931, in Velizh, Russia, describes her life before the war; the beginning of the war and her father being taken away; the bombing of Velizh two weeks after the war started; escaping with her family to a small village for a short time and moving back to Velizh; how the Jewish population began wearing the yellow markers; the forced relocation of Jews to a ghetto that was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Germans and local police; the post-war trials of the local police who guarded the ghettos; the large fire in the ghetto during the winter and seeing Jews being shot as they tried to escape; hearing that many Jewish families played dead in the snow to avoid execution; a German bringing a young Jewish boy her family the night after the fire; taking care of the boy for a single day before he left to find his own people; many Jews being protected and saved by Russians in Velizh; returning to Velizh from Belarus in 1944 during liberation to see an overgrown foundation of a city; how the Germans kicked all of the residents out of their homes and into jail in Velizh; the residents being taken at night to Belarus over the frozen river by horse; how all the men were gone from the city and only women, children, and teens remained; and being happy to be away from the war zone.

Research interview with Aleksandr Bordyukov

Oral History

Aleksandr Bordyukov, born in 1928 in Velizh, Russia, discusses the large Jewish population in Velizh before the war; the restrictions on Jews; living in a Jewish-Russian neighborhood; the relations between Jews and non-Jews; the nine synagogues in Velizh; how mixed marriages were normal; how Jews were craftsmen (shoemakers, tailors, watchmakers), musicians, and tradesmen; the bombing at the beginning of the war; Jews being forced to do labor; the creation of a ghetto on Zhgutovskogo Street; the shooting execution of 150 Jewish men from Velizh and Surazh in October 1941 in Kurmeli village and witnessing it from a nearby field; seeing the ghetto being burned during the night of January 28, 1942 and the killing of 700-800 Jews; leaving town the next day because his street was on fire; returning to Velizh in 1943 after the town was liberated; Russian people settling in Jewish houses; people being hanged for their connections to the partisans; the lack of Jews in Velizh after the war; and helping to raise money in the 1960s for a memorial to the ghetto victims.

Research interview with Yevgeniya Yershova

Oral History

Yevgeniya Yershova, born in 1931, in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Usvyatsky District, Russia, describes her life before the war; the relatively large Jewish population in her town; her father's Jewish friends; how the Jewish children tended not to play with Gentile children; the beginning of the war and how the Jews remained in their homes; the relocation of the Jews into a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow markers; hearing about the round up the Jewish residents by the Germans; the shooting of Jews who tried to escape the ghetto; how her father was told to bury all of the Jews that had been executed within the ghetto; being told by her father that not everyone who was buried was dead; the indiscriminate shooting of people; how her father knew many of the victims; never going to see the murder site; how the Russians returned to their homes, which were taken for the ghetto, after the mass murder of the Jewish residents; seeing a Jewish man hanging near her sister's house; how there was no real violence towards the local Gentile population; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty.

Research interview with Zoya Semionova

Oral History

Zoya Semionova, born in 1932 in Dvorets, Russia, discusses growing up in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Russia; the Jewish students in her classroom before the war; the Jewish community; the good relations between the Jews and non-Jews; the arrival of the Germans; the creation of a ghetto in Usvyaty and the relocation of Jews and non-Jews; the hiding of Jews by local families; seeing the execution of Jews briefly; returning to the execution site after the shooting was over and seeing people who were half-alive in a pit; seeing two hanged people, a Jew and a partisan; the execution of a local photographer, Khrapkov, because he was Jewish; leaving Usvyaty with her family when the bombings and battles began; returning in 1944; police officer who was tried for crimes after the war; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty after the war.