Overview
- Interview Summary
- Sonya Leybovna Birman, born on September 10, 1928, in Zhitomir (ZHytomyr), Ukraine, discusses the outbreak of war; returning to Staraya Kotelnya (Stara Kotel'nia), Ukraine; mass shootings in 1941; the shooting deaths of her parents and grandmother; wandering from village to village; asking for food and lodging near the town of Andrushovka (Andrushivka), Ukraine; being given food and shelter by a partisan woman with whom she stayed for six months; the arrival of Soviet troops in 1944; participating in a post-war trial of police who were involved in the killing of her family; returning to Zhitomir then Staraya Kotelnya; meeting the man who later became her husband; receiving a summons by the NKVD; and the psychological effects of her Holocaust experiences.
- Interviewee
- Sonya L. Birman
- Date
-
interview:
1994 August 09
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Russian
- Extent
-
1 videocassette (U-Matic) : sound, color ; 3/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Hiding places--Ukraine. Holocaust survivors--Ukraine. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Psychological aspects. Jewish refugees--Biography. Jews--Ukraine--Stara Kotel'nia. Jews--Ukraine--ZHytomyr. Mass murder--Ukraine--Stara Kotel'nia. Shooting (Execution)--Ukraine--Stara Kotel'nia. War crime trials--Ukraine. Women guerrillas--Ukraine. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities--Soviet Union. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Andrushivka (ZHytomyrs'ka oblast', Ukraine) Stara Kotel'nia (Ukraine) Ukraine--History--German occupation, 1941-1944. ZHytomyr (Ukraine)
- Personal Name
- Birman, Sonya Leybovna, 1928-
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Nathan Beyrak, project director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History Branch, coordinated the interview with Sonya Leybovna Birman in Ukraine on August 9, 1994. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview in March 1995.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. - Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 08:22:12
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn511913
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Also in Oral History interviews of the Ukraine Documentation Project
Oral history interviews of the Ukraine Documentation Project conducted in partnership with the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with the assistance of Beit Lohamei Haghetaot in Israel. The 43 interviews with Ukrainian Jewish Holocaust survivors were conducted between August 1-15, 1994, resulting in about 60 taped hours, covering a geographical span of about 3500 kilometers. The journey consisted of two main parts - to the east of Kiev, and to the west and south of Kiev. Taping was conducted in Kharkov, Cherkassy, the village of Kamenka-Dneprovskaya, Zhitomir - specifically in the wooded area where Zhitomir's Jews were killed. Other villages, towns and cities where interviews were conducted include Vinnitsa, Tulchin, and Shargorod.
Date: 1994 August 01-1994 August
Oral history interview with Mikhail Aronovich Vayntsel'boym
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Mikhail Aronovich Vayntsel'boym, born in 1928 in Berdychiv, Ukraine, describes the arrival of the Germans on July 7, 1941, and the establishment of the ghetto in Berdichev; how 900 Jews were shot during the first days of the ghetto and that his mother and sister were killed early on in the occupation; being hidden on the day the police came for the action; how he survived a second occasion in which Jews were marched to be killed; being taken to another family where he lived for half a year; working for a local man taking care of livestock; going to a nearby village and working on a Kolkhoz until the Soviet liberation in December 1943; and his return to Berdichev after the war and his post-war life.
Oral history interview with Riva Isakovna Braiter
Oral History
Riva Isakovna Braiter, born on September 10, 1919 in Nemirov (Nemyriv, Vinnyts'ka oblast'), Ukraine, describes the outbreak of World War II; how people first wanted to evacuate but could not because there were no trains available; returning to Nemirov where the Germans soon arrived and set up a ghetto; fleeing the ghetto with her mother and heading toward Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia), Ukraine; being fed by peasant families along the way; arriving in Vinnitsa and staying with an aunt until the Germans came to Vinnitsa; returning with her mother to Nemirov, where they lived for a month with a Ukrainian peasant her mother had helped during the turbulent collectivization period; deciding she could not stand being in hiding; going to Vinnitsa and asking a former co-worker to give her false documents and a new identity which she could use; traveling in August and September of 1942 with no particular destination in mind; being fed by peasants along the way; arriving in Khmel'nyts'ka oblast and getting a job in Gorodok (Horodok); being suspected of being a Jew, put in prison, and subsequently released; traveling in the direction of Zhitomir (ZHytomyr), Ukraine and working for a local German police post as a cook; being approached by partisans to steal ammunition from the German police post; joining the partisan unit "Khrushchev," whose job it was to blow up rail lines; fighting between Ukrainian factions and the relations between Poles and Ukrainians in the area; how her partisan unit had many Ossetians, Uzbeks, and Armenians, who were former prisoners of war; returning in May 1944 to her home in Vinnitsa oblast which had been liberated by the Red Army; finding her mother and going to live in Kiev, Ukraine towards the end of 1945; and her thoughts on the need for a monument in the area of Ukraine where Jews were killed.
Oral history interview with Lev Grigorovich Ayzen
Oral History
Lev Grigorovich Ayzen, born on January 17, 1915, describes 1933 when he went to the Crimea with his family and joined the Jewish Agricultural Commune and then a Kolkhoz; being drafted in 1937 into the army in Kiev, Ukraine, where he served for two years before being sent to Zhitomyr, Ukraine to work in a military supply warehouse; being demobilized in 1940 and working as an electrician in Kiev; the beginning of the war in 1941; being captured by the Germans in Poltavskaya oblast in Ukraine and driven from one camp to another; how in the summer of 1942 he was in Kremenchug (Kremenchuk), Ukraine, where there was a large POW camp; trying to escape and failing; escaping in September 1942 when prisoners were being marched from one camp to another, and being sheltered by peasants; joining a partisan unit led by the regiment commander Simonenko, which was involved in blowing up rail lines; the large concentration of partisan units in Branskiy or Vranskiy forest near Chernigov (Chernihiv), Ukraine, in the summer of 1943; the approach of the Red Army, preparing a landing strip, and beginning to build a raft bridge across the Desna River; being seriously wounded and taken to a Soviet field hospital; returning to a liberated Kiev; being reunited with family; and his post-war life and intention to immigrate to Israel.
Oral history interview with Mikhail Abramovich Bartik
Oral History
Mikhail Abramovich Bartik, born on October 27, 1928, in Tulchin (Tulchyn, Vinnitskaya oblast), Ukraine, discusses the beginning of World War II when his family decided to evacuate but later returned because Komsomol officials assured them that there was nothing to worry about; how most men in Tulchin were mobilized into the Soviet Army; the establishment of a ghetto in Tulchin in December 1941 and many were given injections of various diseases, including typhus and dysentery; being driven with a group of Jews to Pechora to the sanitarium grounds and buildings with no food or water provided to them; sneaking out of the camp and obtaining food from the local populace; Germans coming to the camp in September 1942 to select Jews for work; how weak and sick persons were shot on the spot and others were put in trucks and taken away; being amongst those remaining with his family and being told they would not be shot; how after the war no Soviet official or press would acknowledge that there had been a concentration camp for Jews at Pechora; how most remaining inmates escaped as Soviet troops approached in March 1944; his post-war life, marriage, and efforts to establish monuments to victims in Tulchin and Pechora.
Oral history interview with Ester Yankelovna Bartik
Oral History
Esther Yankelovna Bartik, born in 1929, discusses her family being forced to move to a collective farm near Marinopol (Mariupol'), Ukraine; moving in 1937 to Tuchino, Ukraine (possibly Tul'chyn); the German occupation of Tuchino and the establishment of the ghetto in September 1941; being marched to Torkhovo (Torkiv), Ukraine and even further to Pechora (Pechera); being driven into a building of a former sanitarium; becoming ill with typhus; escaping and going in the direction of Kopaygorod (Kopaĭhorod), staying in the houses of Jews and non-Jews; being arrested, released, and returned to Pechora; escaping again and traveling to Dzhurin, Ukraine, where she stayed in a children's home in until liberation; returning to Tuchino; and her post-war life and marriage.
Oral history interview with Raisa Michailovna Burkovskaya
Oral History
Raisa Michailovna Burkovskaya (née Zaslavskaya), born in 1934, discusses her early family life and schooling; evacuating to Poltava, Ukraine, through Kremenchug, Ukraine; being separated from her father and brother; her mother reporting for registration in Poltava, Ukraine; traveling from village to village with her mother under false Ukrainian names; traveling for a while with a woman and her children; her mother being gifted a Gentile Ukrainian passport from a family they stayed with; traveling to Kharkov (Kharkiv), Ukraine; being captured by the Gestapo in Karlovka, Ukraine; travelling east to places such as Miroshniki (Miroshnyky); living in the same location under false names from June 1942 to October 1944; hiding on a farm; return to Poltava, Ukraine; living in Poltava for six months after liberation; and her return to school along with her mother's return to work.
Oral history interview with Boris Naumovich Chandros
Oral History
Boris Naumovich Chandros, born on December 25, 1923, in Ozarintsy, Ukraine, discusses his early family life and schooling; the famine from 1933 to 1934 and the book he wrote about that time period; the German army’s occupation in the summer of 1941; becoming a soldier even though he was considered too young; going into battle and experiencing shell-shock; traveling to Mogilev Podolskiy (Mohyliv-Podil's'kyi), Ukraine in August 1943 and seeing people eating grass; visiting a friend in Karpivka, Ukraine; traveling to Ozarintsy, where he printed leaflets with a friend; the ghetto in Ozarintsy; a Ukrainian doctor named Stukalenko who provided Boris's family with food and medicine; the outbreak of typhus; going to Mogilev Podolskiy; being sent to the Pechera work camp; escaping from the Pechora; going to the Mogilevsky ghetto to see his uncle; being shot by a German soldier; the liberation of his town; serving in the cavalry and as a secret service agent; demobilization in autumn 1945; studying at Kiev university; his teaching career; writing books; and making movies.
Oral history interview with Charna Gilbovskaya
Oral History
Charna Gilbovskaya, born in Zhitomir (ZHytomyr), Ukraine on May 20, 1927, discusses her early schooling; the hunger in Ukraine between 1933 and 1934; the war beginning in June 1941; leaving Zhitomir; arriving in Staraya Kotelnya, Ukraine; returning to Zhitomir; pretending to be Ukrainian rather than Jewish for a short time in Zhitomir; the establishment of the ghetto in Zhitomir; escaping from the ghetto; finding shelter with a Ukrainian girl who gave her a birth certificate; obtaining a place in a children's home; assisting partisans by letting them know where the Germans kept their ammunition; the liberation of Zhitomir in 1943; the offer of adoption by Vera Lysenko; sewing uniforms for the army in 1944; her marriage in 1946; and feeling grateful for all those who assisted her during the war.
Oral history interview with Lidia Gluzmanova
Oral History
Lidia Gluzmanova, born in Kharkiv, Ukraine on August 24, 1928, discusses her early family life and school life; the Germans arriving in Kharkiv and the rounding up of Jews; escaping before they were transported to Poltava, Ukraine; travelling from village to village; her mother getting fake passports; lodging in Chernoglazovka, Ukraine; living in Viazovoe of Grunkovskiy district for a time; liberation in 1944; returning to Kharkiv; post-war hardships; attending school to become a dentist; her marriage in 1951 and having a son; her life in Kazakhstan for a period of three years; and eventual return to Kharkiv.
Oral history interview with Alexander Gorbanos
Oral History
Alexander Yakovlich Gorbanos, born in Kharkov (Kharkiv), Ukraine on December 23, 1933, discusses the composition of his family; growing up in the Novoselovka neighborhood in Kharkov; the German occupation of Kharkov in October 1941; hiding with various families; reaching Belgorod, Russia; buying fake passports with the non-Jewish Ukrainian name Kochenko; traveling to a town called Borisovke, Russia, where he ended up in a hospital; leaving the hospital and being arrested by Ukrainian police; being released by Ukrainian police and sent to a collective farm camp near Borisovke; being liberated by Soviet troops in February 1943; working on a collective farm in Voronezh oblast (Voronezhskaia oblast'), Russia; the liberation of Kharkov in 1944 and returning there; attending trade school in 1947; entering military school and the army in 1952; serving in Belarus; and other remarks about his military life.
Oral history interview with Maria Grinberg
Oral History
Maria Grinberg, born in Zhornishche (ZHornyshche), Ukraine on December 16, 1928, discusses her early family life; her family's move to Kiev, Ukraine; the German entrance into Kiev on September 19, 1941; being taken to Babi Yar and witnessing shooting; surviving Babi Yar incident along with her friend, Genya Batasheva; living with a Ukrainian friend and her family; traveling on foot to Khartov (Khartiv), Ukraine; traveling by civilian train; receiving assistance in the form of clothing and food from a Russian soldier; the fate of her father; returning to Kiev after the Soviet arrival; and her post-war life.
Oral history interview with Fiodor Isakovich Intergois
Oral History
Fiodor Isakovich Intergois, born on April 28, 1920, in Ostrog (Ostroh), Ukraine, discusses his early family life; the arrival of Germans; being expelled from home; being taken to the forest where he witnessed other Jews being shot next to ditches (July 1941); the establishment of the ghetto; escaping from the ghetto; receiving shelter and food from a Ukrainian family; building a mud hut in the forest and residing there for a few months; joining a partisan detachment located to the north of the Khmelnitskiy district, next to the Shepitovskiy and Kislovdskiy forests; the disbandment of the partisan detachment in April 1944; working as a hospital orderly before the war ended and afterward when the hospital became a war sanitarium; being imprisoned for nine years after the war; receiving amnesty; his post-war family; and receiving a medal for victory in war.
Oral history interview with Yelizavyeta Karper
Oral History
Yelizavyeta Karper, born in 1921 in the town of Zvenigorodka (Zvenyhorodka), Ukraine, discusses her early family life; working as a teacher in Yurkovka (IUrkivka); the Germans arriving in Zvenigorodka on July 29, 1941; the Ukrainian nationalist group of Zvenigorodka; the establishment of the ghetto in Zvenigorodka; the camp in Zvenigorodka and the Germans killing people from the camp; working in the forest on August 23, 1943; escaping from the forest and meeting a man named Boria Pintar; approaching Pochapintsy, Ukraine on August 24, 1943; her plans to travel toward Kiev, Ukraine; the arrival of the Russians; reuniting with her mother and sister; returning to Zvenigorodka; her marriage in 1947; working as a teacher for forty years; and her post-war trauma.
Oral history interview with Galina Iosefovna Klotsman
Oral History
Galina Iosefovna Klotsman, born September 15, 1923 in Pyatigory, Kiev oblast, Ukraine, discusses her early family life; her family moving in 1932 during the famine to a kolkhoz in Munus, Crimea near Yevpatoriya, Crimea; returning to Pyatigory in 1935; war breaking out; fleeing upon the German’s arrival and obtaining work on a nearby sovkhoz (collective farm); how in the spring of 1942 men from the sovkhov were taken to a work camp in Zhashkov; the killing of women and men during the deportations to work camps; working in a quarry near Buki, Ukraine; her family members who did not survive; being liberated in the fall of 1943; traveling with her sister in the direction of Vinnitsa oblast; residing in a dormitory of a collective farm; taking nursing courses; living with her father in Kiev, Ukraine; moving to Odessa, Ukraine; working for forty years in a printing house; her war experiences; and receiving no compensation for her war experiences.
Oral history interview with Lubov Krasilovskaya
Oral History
Lubov Krasilovskaya, born on November 27, 1927 in Zvenigorodka (Zvenyhorodka), Ukraine, discusses her early family life; the German’s arrival on July 29, 1941; the establishment of a ghetto in Zvenigorodka; being taken to concentration camps in Nemirov, Ukraine and Smilchentsy (Smil'chyntsi), Ukraine; being taken to a camp in Budishchi, Ukraine in December and leaving before May 1943; being taken back to Nemirov, where she remained until August 1943; escaping the camp with a friend; traveling toward Kirovograd district (Kirovohrads'kyĭ raĭon); the entry of the Red Army; returning to Zvenigorodka, where she worked as a teacher; and her marriage and having a daughter.
Oral history interview with Yevgenya Solomonsovna Lavrovna
Oral History
Yevgenya Solomonsovna Lavrona, born in 1921 in Bar, Ukraine, discusses her family and pre-war life; German entrance on July 16, 1941; the establishment of the ghetto in Bar; life in the ghetto; escaping from the ghetto with her sister; traveling toward Litin, Ukraine; hiding in the basement in the Litin ghetto; traveling through the forest and staying in the home of a woman and her two sisters for a brief period of time; returning to Bar along with her sister; traveling toward the Romanian border; continuing toward the village of Luchincy, Ukraine, where they remained a few months; traveling toward Shargorod (Sharhorod), Ukraine and not staying long before going to Jurin, Ukraine (possibly Dzhuryn), where they had an accident with Romanians; going towards Tomashpol (Tomashpil'), Ukraine as well as Krizhopol (Kryzhopil'), Ukraine; going to Myastkovka, Ukraine, where they found family members; receiving assistance with food and housing during their travels; journeying back to Tomashpol; returning to Bar; locating and reuniting with her brother; and her post-war life.
Oral history interview with Batya Borisovna Lifshits
Oral History
Batya Borisovna Lifshits, born in 1926 in Berdichev (Berdychiv), Ukraine, describes her family, including the professions of her parents and the schools she and her siblings attended; the Jewish population of Berdichev; her sister, a Komsomol member, wanting her family to evacuate the town at the beginning of the war; her father’s refusal to leave the town because of the kind treatment of Jews by Germans during the First World War; the bombing of the town by German forces; German forces entering the town and killing Jews; German orders for Jews to wear Star of David badges, under punishment of beating should they refuse; living in a ghetto, from which they could not leave to find food; a mass shooting of Jews in 1941, which included her sister; escaping the mass shooting; hiding in the house of neighbor for one night; staying with relatives in Raigorod; hearing about a second mass murder of Jews by German forces; local townspeople hiding her from German soldiers; leaving the village after the second mass murder; working for a family in Sangorod until liberation; returning home after the Soviet Army entered Berdichev; soldiers of the Soviet Army refusing to believe her story, accusing her of collaborating with German authorities; and her marriage and life after the war.
Oral history interview with Pioter Borisovich Lochovitski
Oral History
Pioter Borisovich Lochovitski, born in 1923 in Charkiv (Kharkiv), Ukraine, describes his family, including his Jewish father and Russian mother; his broken leg and hospital stay in 1941; not fleeing German forces due to his hospital stay, his father’s illness, and the condition of his grandmother; the German invasion of Charkiv; the eviction of his family from their apartment by German soldiers; moving into another apartment and living there until 1943; an order for all Jews to gather in a central location; his counterfeit Russian passport, made for him by a friend; his father's relocation to the ghetto; his mother visiting his father every day in the ghetto; his father escaping the ghetto and hiding with his family; the difficulty of life during occupation, including the lack of food; sheltering a woman and her daughter whom his father knew from the ghetto; finding a passport with a Russian name for his father; leaving the town to beg for food; encountering a policeman in the village of Vodolaga, who brought them to the commandant's office; being able escape the commandant's office as a result of their Russian passports; the Soviet Army entering Charkiv in 1943; joining the Soviet Army during their retreat from Charkiv; spending some time in a hospital and then fighting until the end of the war; and his life after the war, including his medical studies, the arrest and release of his father, and his return to Charkiv.
Oral history interview with Vladimir Izraelovich Lubarski
Oral History
Vladimir Izraelovich Lubarski, born in 1927 in the village of Loghkincy, Ukraine, describes his family; their move to Kharkiv, Ukraine; the professions of his parents; the conscription of his father to restore buildings in Kharkiv destroyed by German forces, resulting in his inability to evacuate; remaining in Kharkiv for his father; the German invasion in 1941; his father receiving an order to prepare important building sites for destruction should Kharkiv fall under German occupation; attempting to relocate to the village of Saltov, but finding it under German occupation; returning to Kharkiv; German soldiers entering his apartment and beating his parents; his family leaving the apartment to live with his grandmother; forced labor under German authorities; his relocation to the ghetto; the cruelty of ghetto guards and the poor living conditions there; German soldiers taking Jews away to murder; his family’s escaped from the ghetto; being sheltered by local townspeople; his mother forging passports for them without their Jewish names; the betrayal of his father by a colleague; discovering that his father had been killed; leaving Kharkiv and traveling to New Vodolaga with the new passports; finding the Soviet Army and being given food and shelter by soldiers; living with the soldiers and helping as much as he could; leaving the Soviet Army to stay in the village; working in a camp with German prisoners of war; escaping the prisoner of war camp to the village of Barvenkovo and living with a family there; reuniting with his mother and brother; deciding to go toward the North Caucas, avoiding villages with German soldiers; staying in the village of Vysotskoe for the winter working as herdsman; the beginning of the German retreat; his family leaving the village of Vysotskoe; traveling with his mother to Baku then Tbilisi to stay with friends; leaving both cities as a result of the lack of clothing and food; staying for the remainder of the war in a vacated house which had been occupied by Germans; returning to Kharkiv in 1944; and life after the war, including his studies and family.
Oral history interview with Pioter Arkadyevich Mateyevsky
Oral History
Pioter Arkadyevich Mateyevsky, born in 1917 in Cherkassy, Ukraine, describes his family and education; his service in the army; fighting German forces in Belarus, and then retreating after running out of ammunition; his desertion from his unit to find his family in Cherkassy; discovering from a neighbor that his parents had evacuated; his brother being drafted into the Soviet Army; his lack of trust for his neighbors in Cherkassy during the German occupation; leaving Cherkassy for Poltava; disguising himself as a herdsman while traveling and creating a false Russian identity; arriving and staying in the village of New Life for several months, working on a farm and playing violin for villagers; telling a German soldier that he was Ukrainian and occasionally assisting him with different household jobs; how the German soldier did not kill him when he found out he was a soldier; receiving an order to report to the authorities; his refusal to report as a result of rumors that policemen were killing people; leaving New Life; staying in the Orghiski district until hearing rumors that German soldiers from New Life were searching for him; traveling from one village to another; staying with a teacher for several months; deciding to write leaflets and asking the teacher to distribute them; joining the approaching Soviet Army; remaining with the army until victory; not knowing what happened to his parents during the war; the death of his brother on the Romanian front; and his life after the war.
Oral history interview with Bronia Yakovlevna Medvinskaya
Oral History
Bronia Yakovlevna Medvinskaya, born in 1924 in Lysianka, Ukraine, describes the unsuccessful attempt of her family to evacuate at the beginning of the war; the establishment by German authorities of a Jewish administration which organized Jewish work details; her work as a maid in the living quarters of a German member of the Einsatzgruppen; the beating of her father by a German soldier; receiving a warning by a German cook of the dormitory that all Jews will be killed; a group of Jewish men and boys from Lysianka rounded up and brought to the dormitory where they were stripped, beaten with boards with nails driven into them, and then taken away to be killed; other groups, such as Soviet prisoners of war, brought to the dormitory then killed in the nearby forest; her work as a maid in a military hospital; relocation to a concentration camp with her mother and sister; a mass shooting of camp inmates by German soldiers in 1942; a second mass shooting at the camp in 1943, of which she was warned and able to escape; fleeing to a village with her sister and a friend, where she worked for a family; traveling to Kiev, Ukraine; convincing Soviet authorities that she was not a spy in order to join the military; the contacts she had with partisans during the war; the fate of her family members; and her life after the war.
Oral history interview with Alexander Meirovich Milshtein
Oral History
Alexander Meirovich Milshtein, born in 1929 in Shargorod (Sharhorod), Ukraine, describes his family, education, and life before the war; how few people were able to evacuate at the beginning of the war; the day that German forces entered his town; the order for Jews to wear special badges; the creation of a ghetto; restrictions on the movements of the Jewish population; an incident in which he did not wear his badge, was mistaken for a Russian, and made to be a servant for German soldiers for a few days until he could escape; German soldiers who lived in his house and were kind to his family; the arrival of Romanian troops in his town; Romanian soldiers attempting to protect Jews from some orders made by German officers; Romanian soldiers giving food to the poor people of the town; the Jewish administration of the town working with Romanian soldiers to attempt to make life in the ghetto easier for its residents; deaths in his town from typhus; German soldiers taking young people from the town under the guise of a work detail; rumors that the young people had been killed since they never returned; his fear of being taken by German soldiers; hiding in the basement of an old house for several months to avoid them; acquiring a handheld transceiver from a Romanian from the Gendarmerie to give to a partisan member; the increase of partisan activity around his town; skirmishes between Romanian soldiers and partisans; the abuse of the Jewish population by local police; a member of the State Security Committee of the Russian government disguised as a priest; the lack of information in the town about the war; confusion among German forces regarding the direction in which they needed to retreat; anger among German forces ordered to retreat; hiding with his family and others in a basement to avoid harm from the German soldiers; the death of his mother; the work of his father; and his life after the war.
Oral history interview with Dimitri Vasiloviev Mironyenko
Oral History
Dimitri Vasiloviev Mironyenko, born in 1927 in Ukraine, describes his family life before the war; changing his name in 1941 from a Jewish to Ukrainian name; changes in his hometown of Cherkassy at the beginning of the war; the retreat of the Red Army; evacuation from Cherkassy; staying with his grandmother in Kremenghug (Kremenchuk), Ukraine; moving to Poltava, Ukraine; being unable to flee Poltava due to the surrounding German forces; the drafting of his father into the Soviet military; the German invasion of Poltava in 1941; traveling to Cherkassy; including leaving his mother and sister in Poltava; being robbed by policemen outside of Cherkassy; the destruction of buildings in Cherkassy; discovering that a new family moved into his apartment and refused to leave; traveling to live with his grandmother; his grandmother conscription into labor; the murder of his grandmother with a group of other Jews; hearing about the mass murder of the Jews of Kiev; an order for the Jews of Cherkassy to gather; his understanding that he would be killed if he were to go; hiding from German soldiers; staying in a children's home where he did reveal that he was Jewish; being recognized by a few children and a teacher who did not inform the police; an incident in which friends recognized and called to him in public; the death of two of the home’s Jewish boys who were killed by police; fleeing Cherkassy after someone informed on him; staying in the village of Belozer'e (Belozersk), Russia; traveling to the village of Smela (Smila), Ukraine, and discovering that the Jewish population there was still alive; living in a home for invalids; leaving Smela in 1942 as a result of German soldiers who were killing the inhabitants of the home for invalids; traveling from village to village toward the front; the kindness of the villagers and their willingness to give him food and shelter; the theft of his documents which identified him as Ukrainian; returning to Kobylyaki and working as a herdsman; traveling toward the front in Stalingrad; working in Alexandrivka; hearing that the remaining Jews of Alexandrivka were to be killed, and seeing the trucks used to transport Jews; being taken by the police and beaten; leaving Alexandrivka because of the lack of food; working in a town near Alexandrivka which contained many prisoners of war; police fleeing the Red Army; the death of his father during the war; finding his mother and sister alive years after the war; and his life after the war.
Oral history interview with Zinaida Moseyevna Mudrik
Oral History
Zinaida Moseyevna Mudrik, born in 1921 in Levency, Ukraine, describes her family, education, and marriage; returning to Levency in 1941 when her husband was drafted to fight in the war; the unsuccessful attempt to evacuate Levency; the expulsion of the Jews from Levency by German authorities; their relocation to a ghetto; German soldiers and policemen robbing her home; forced labor for German forces; German soldiers killing and harming Jews from the ghetto; German soldiers taking Jews from the ghetto to a different location; the birth of her child in the ghetto; how her husband was in a prisoner of war camp but managed to escape after obtaining German documents for himself and his friends; the return of her husband who organized the escape of the remaining Jews from the ghetto; placing the elderly and children from the ghetto in villages; living in the forest in 1942; joining a partisan group; finding weapons for the partisan group; finding a woman to take care of her son for the remainder of the war; many members of her partisan unit joining the Red Army when it approached their village; the last battle fought by the partisan unit near the village of Veselinka in 1944; leaving the forest after the battle; traveling to Kiev, Ukraine; her husband receiving a document that proved he served as a partisan, allowing them to start a new life in Kiev; and their life after the war.
Oral history interview with Philip Gregorivich Portyansky
Oral History
Philip Gregorivich Portyansky, born in 1925 in Kamenka (Kam'ianka), Ukraine, describes the Jewish community of Kamenka and the local synagogue; warnings from Polish Jewish refugees about the cruelty of German forces; the inability of his family to flee Kamenka at the beginning of the war; the bombing of his village by German forces; a pogrom in his village which killed many Jews; hiding from German soldiers in the home of a friend and then leaving for the village of Rebedaevka (Rebedaĭlivka), Ukraine; the threat from German authorities that those caught helping Jews would be killed; staying with a friend of his father's in Rebedaevka; learning that everyone from Kamenka who could not escape the pogrom were killed; traveling to the village of Revovka (Revivka), Ukraine and finding his mother and sister; working in a field and living in the house of a friend who hid them from German soldiers; the headman of Revovka’s demand for his family’s documents; returning to Kamenka and receiving registration numbers and badges indicating that they were Jews; discovering another family living in his house in Kamenka; the family’s refusal to leave; living with his uncle; working for the Germans; his family’s transfer to Jurchikha to work; local townspeople giving them food; their transfer to an internment camp; poor living conditions and a sympathetic policeman in the camp; the head policeman who helped his family escape the camp; escaping the camp with his mother and sister and going to Revovka; leaving Revovka and traveling toward the front; hiding their identification documents so they would not be identified as Jewish; telling people in Kirovogradski that they were from Donbass and lost their documents; a woman from the village giving them shelter; working with his mother and sister; an incident in which his mother was taken to the commandant's office by the village headman who said that she was Jewish; his mother’s release from the commandant’s office after she insisted that she was Ukrainian; leaving Kirovogradski; his mother's acquisition of documents providing them with Ukrainian identities; escaping detainment by authorities with the forged documents; receiving paperwork to travel to Donbass but traveling to the village Potoki instead where they lived and worked; changing his birth year to avoid being taken to Germany; receiving anti-German leaflets from partisan groups in 1942; escaping from local police in 1942; Russian soldiers from the secret service entering Kamenka in 1943; avoiding being drafted because of his youthful appearance; receiving a promotion to brigade leader in the village as a result of being a good worker; discovering that his father was alive; and his life after the war.
Oral history interview with Yuri Samuilovich Rachman
Oral History
Yuri Samuilovich Rachman, born in 1928 in Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia), Ukraine, describes his family and education; the unsuccessful attempt of his family to evacuate Vinnitsa in 1941; a pogrom led by German soldiers in 1941; the death of his brother, mother, and grandmother; leaving the village with his father; traveling to Staryi Gorod where there was less Jewish persecution; receiving shelter from a village woman; staying in Staryi Gorod until 1942, working in the village; the order by German authorities for all Jews from local villages to gather; his transfer with his father to a concentration camp outside of Vinnitsa; harsh conditions in the camp where guards killed those who could not work; escaping the camp with his father and his father’s friend; hiding in the house of a friend of his father's; living and working in the ghetto of Vinnitsa; German soldiers killing the elderly in the ghetto in 1943; escaping from the ghetto; traveling to Tuit'ki (Tiut'ky) and receiving shelter from friends; leaving Tuit'ki and receiving help crossing a river from a villager; traveling to Krasnoe and living on a Jewish collective farm; being taken with a group of Jews by policemen to Zhmerinka (Zhmerynka); his transfer to the village of Tree Khatki to repair a railway station to aid in their retreat; escaping from the camp by train; traveling to Ghmerinka and then continuing on foot; liberation of the village in which they stayed in 1944; returning to Vinnitsa and discovering another family living in their apartment; his father receiving permission to live in any empty apartment; and his life after the war.
Oral history interview with Pioter Ravinovich Ravechevich
Oral History
Pioter Ravinovich Ravechevich, born in 1923 in Drogichin (Drahichyn), Belarus, describes his family and education; moving to Pinsk in 1939; the bombing of Pinsk at the beginning of the war; the German invasion of the city; German soldiers taking Jew as hostages which they exchanged for items such as gold, silver, and warm clothes; the mass murder of Jewish men and boys in 1941 which included his brothers; life inside the ghetto, including the lack of food and water; the liquidation of the Pinsk ghetto in 1942; his German boss who hid him in his house during the liquidation of the ghetto and provided him with travel documents and found him work for him in Kiev; starvation in Kiev; German forces evacuating Kiev in 1943; some German soldiers knowing he was Jewish but not reporting him; his inability to reclaim his Jewish identity after the liberation of Kiev and Pinsk because of suspicion that he worked with German forces; the death of his family members in the ghetto; and his life after the war, including his attempts to find the German man who saved his life.
Oral history interview with Riza Yankelevna Roitman
Oral History
Riza Ynkelevna Roitman, describes her memories of her childhood in the Ruplaskaya oblast, Ukraine before the German invasion; the events preceding her deportation to the Pechora concentration camp at the end of 1941; the typhus epidemic that afflicted her, her parents, and many of the camp’s inmates; the death of her parents from typhus and her mother’s last words; how she and many other inmates were saved from execution at the last second because of an appeal from the queen of Romania to stop killing Jews; how she and other inmates felt that death was just a matter of time and life was meaningless; her decision to escape the Pechora camp; how she was captured in a nearby village and imprisoned by Romanian police; how the police took her through the streets of her home town and how she began crying once they passed her old house; working for the Romanians with another Jewish girl; how the Romanians fed her soup and bread; being sent back to Pechora; bribing a German guard to save her life; her attempt to escape again with her sister; how towards the end of the German occupation she made a final escape attempt; being captured and put in a jail cell together with another Jewish girl and a drunk Ukrainian vodka thief; the village demanding their release because they felt more free towards the end of the war; her release on March 18, 1944; working as an army nurse until the end of the war; starting a family after the war; and living in Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Oral history interview with Olga Zacharovna Rozhchenko
Oral History
Olga Zacharovna Rozhchenko, born in Kiev, Ukraine, describes her early family life; the arrival of German forces in Kiev in 1941; the inability of her family to evacuate the city; the Babi Yar massacre; two of her Jewish girlfriends who survived the Babi Yar massacre and came to her apartment to hide; hiding her friends for the duration of the war; and her relationship with the Jewish population.
Oral history interview with Roza Aronovna Shkolnik
Oral History
Roza Aronova Shkolnik, born in 1924 in Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia), Ukraine, describes her family life before the war; her father’s draft into the Soviet Army; German soldiers forcing her family to perform unpaid labor; trading clothes and other items for food; the killing of Jews by German soldiers in 1941; hiding in a basement from the German soldiers; leaving the basement and discovering that many Jews from Vinnitsa were taken away by German forces, and their houses had been robbed; being taken with a group of Jews; German soldiers beating all of the Jews, including children; telling a German soldier she was Russian in order to secure her release; being required to wear a badge labeling her as Jewish; the ability of local police to kill her at will; starvation as a result of not being able to work for money; being warned that Germans soldiers were going to kill her and her family; registration by the German authorities; expulsion from her home; a neighbor who gave her food and shelter; local townspeople helping her family with food and allowing her to work for money; the deportation of Jews from Vinnitsa; her separation from her mother; her transfer to a prison where she was taken to work; her attempt to escape from the prison during which she was caught by a policeman and transferred to the ghetto; escaping the ghetto; local townspeople helping her reach Mogil'ov; being caught by a policeman and being transferred to Pechora, and then to a camp with other Jews; deaths in the camp as a result of the lack of food and water; escaping from the camp with a friend; traveling from village to village and staying in Mogil'ov; receiving assistance from local townspeople who brought her to a school where she lived with Romanian Jews; living in Mogil'ov until 1944, working in order to buy food; returning to Vinnitsa after the Red Army came to the village; discovering her brother was alive; and her life after the war.
Oral history interview with Tatyana Yefimovna Shnaider
Oral History
Tatyana Yefimovna Shnaider, born on September 25, 1925, in Olshany (Vil'shany), Ukraine, discusses her early family years and schooling; the beginnings of war; attempting to evacuate to Cherkassy, Ukraine, but returning to Olshany; the establishment of a ghetto and being taken to work every day; all Jews from Olshany being taken to Zvenigorodka (Zvenyhorodka), Ukraine on May 2, 1942 and staying there briefly before being taken to Nemorozh (Nemyriv), Ukraine then Budishchi (Budyshche), Ukraine, where she helped to build roads; being taken back to a camp in Nemorozh; escaping from the camp; the Germans retreating and destroying Ukrainian villages; surviving executions; hiding in a home; returning to Zvenigorodka and the liberation; traveling after the war to Kiev, Ukraine, where she lived and worked; and the fate of her family.
Oral history interview with Fanya Berkovna Shnaider
Oral History
Fanya Berkovna Shnaider, born in 1926 in Gvyaden, discusses her early family life; the beginnings of war; evacuation with family; traveling to Novogrod Volynskiy (Novohrad-Volyns'kyĭ), Ukraine with her parents and two my brothers; going to a village near Novogrod Volynskiy to be with her aunt; the execution of village inhabitants and surviving by hiding; going to Kameny Brod (Kam'yanyy Brid) then going back to Novogrod Volynskiy; finding her family and the massacre of Jews shortly thereafter, including her brother and mother; staying in a children's home for a few months in Radomishche; the relocation of the children's home to a new village; escaping from the new village with two Jewish girlfriends; living in a military unit; joining the Red Army; hiding her Jewishness in the military; living in the forest with her military unit; serving with the intelligence section of her military unit because of her knowledge of German; the commander, Kitrichenko; and her post-war education and family.
Oral history interview with Valentina Petrovna Shneovskaya
Oral History
Valentina Petrovna Shneoskaya, born in 1912, in Brest Litovsk, Belarus, discusses her pre-war family life; moving in 1914 to Chuhuiv, Ukraine; evacuating to Zhitomir (ZHytomyr), Ukraine when the First World War began; getting married in 1934 and the death of her husband at the war's beginning in 1941; not being Jewish but knowing many Jews; working in a children's home in Zhitomir; the killing of many Jews in Zhitomir; her knowledge that Jewish children came to the children's home; giving Jewish children in the children's home Russian names to help keep them safe; how she was the only worker in the children's home with information about the Jewish identities of the children; keeping one Jewish child in her own home; and her acknowledgment that she saved four Jewish children during the war.
Oral history interview with Olga Moseyevna Svetlichnaya
Oral History
Olga Moseyevna Svetlichnaya, born in 1910 in Bobrinets (Bobrynets'), Ukraine, discusses her early family life; moving into a children's home in Bobrinets; moving to Kiev, Ukraine to study; her marriage to a Ukrainian man; moving to Zaporozhye (Zaporizhzhia), Ukraine; the birth of her son; moving back to Kiev; the beginning of the war in Kiev; staying with friends in Kiev until the Germans entered the city; witnessing thousands of Jews being sent to Babi Yar; obtaining Russian documents from her friends so that she could live in Kiev like any other Ukrainian or Russian person; earning money making patties; housing a woman named Petrushko who was a member of the Kiev underground; her apartment becoming a secret place for the Kiev underground organization; being captured by the Germans but escaping after a week; being liberated by the Russians; her husband spending time in a hospital during the war because his plane crashed; and her post-war family life.
Oral history interview with Chanya Libish
Oral History
Chanya Libish, born in 1909 in Staraya Kotelnya (Stara Kotelʹnia), Ukraine, discusses her early family life; the death of her parents; being taken to a children's home with her brother in Zhitomir (ZHytomyr), Ukraine; working in a factory; her marriage and the birth of her children; her husband being sent to war; being sent to the Berdichev (Berdychiv) ghetto and finding homes with families outside the ghetto except for her youngest son; the daily killings in the ghetto; escaping from the ghetto at the end of 1942; staying in her girlfriend's home for over a year; traveling to a nearby village to obtain food; living in various places during the war; being interrogated by the police; obtaining Russian documents; her husband's escape from captivity in 1943; returning to Zhitomir with her husband and children; her husband's return to war; her husband's demobilization in 1946; and assisting other Jews who could not find housing after the war.
Oral history interview with Klara Vinocur
Oral History
Klara Semyonovna Vinocur, born in 1924 in Shpola, Cherkask oblast, Ukraine, describes the Jewish population in Shpola; the good relations between Ukrainians and Jews; her father’s work in a sugar refinery and her mother’s work as a seamstress; her two siblings; her family not being religious but speaking Yiddish at home; the beginning of the war and the general belief that Jews would not be mistreated by the Germans; evacuating to Kremenchug in 1941 but being ordered by Germans back to Shpola; her mother working as a cook for Germans; being ordered to wear a star; her father’s arrest on August 21, 1941 by Ukrainian police and assuming that he was shot; being moved to the ghetto and living there from August 1941 until May 1942; being taken by police in early May 1942 to Brodetskoe (Brodets'ke); coming down with typhus; being taken out of the camp with other sick persons and hiding while the others were shot; hiding in the village of Brodetskoe and fleeing to Shpola, where she found her mother and brother; getting false documents from a Ukrainian policeman; leaving Shpola and heading in the direction of Kirovgrad; being reported to the police by a woman with whom she had asked to stay; her false papers passing inspection and being sent to a Sovkhoz to work; the arrival of Soviet troops; cooking for the troops and being shot while they were under fire; being in a hospital for a month; finding her brother; efforts to establish memorials in various areas after the war; working as a teacher for 35 years; the lack of Jewish resistance in the Shpola area; and how there were many Ukrainians who helped Jews.
Oral history interview with Anna Romanovna Vyerchodov
Oral History
Anna Vyerchodov, born in 1938 in Ukraine, describes her memories of Lydia Gluzman, a Jewish girl who was saved by her aunt; how her aunt found Lydia and another Jewish girl and decided to hide them in the backyard; her aunt’s conviction that despite the risk, driving the girls away was inhumane; how other neighbors turned Jews in to the police; her aunt’s attempts to maintain a good relationship with the police by bringing them food; how her whole family knew about the girls in hiding; how everyone loved Lydia; Lydia visiting the family after the war; and how her family treated Lydia as a family member.
Oral history interview with Sonya Borisovna Yakobova
Oral History
Sonya Borisovna Yakobova (née Glezer), born in 1922 in Raygorodsk (Raĭhorodok), Zhitomir Oblast, Ukraine, describes her parents; attending school elsewhere and living with her aunt; her siblings and the death of her brother during the famine; becoming a teacher in Novogradskiy rayon; being with her family in Raygorodsk when the war began; the Germans entering their town on July 17, 1941; people being put to work; the murder of the sick and elderly; how some Jews were able to join partisans and escape east; the Jews being moved to several buildings on August 9, 1941; the shooting of some of the Jews on September 10 and running and hiding during the action; the surviving Jews being put to work; the shooting of all the remaining Jews in January 1942 and her escape; hiding in several places with her father; going to Alanovskiy rayon in Vinnytsia Oblast, where they stayed with an Ukrainian man; going to Popivka, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine in December 1943; going in March 1944 to Berdichev (Berdychiv), Ukraine; returning home to Raygorodsk; marrying and going to Berdichev; the Jewish community in Raygorodsk and the destruction of their synagogue before the war; collaborators during the war; and her memories of the day the Germans arrived in Raygorodsk.
Oral history interview with Boris Zabarko
Oral History
Boris Mikhaylovich Zabarko, born November 18, 1935 in Kalindorf (Kalininsʹke), Kherson oblast, Ukraine, describes going with her family to Shargorod (Sharhorod), Ukraine in 1939; his family; his limited memories of the war; how his parents were not particularly religious but they spoke Yiddish at home; his father being called into the army when the war broke out and never returned; the Germans entering Shargorod and a German officer living in their home for a time; the Germans leaving and the Hungarians arriving, followed by the Romanians; the establishment of a ghetto; the arrival of Jews from Bessarabia and having two families from this group live with them; a roundup of Jews and his family being saved from the group by a neighbor; the arrival of Soviet troops in the area in March 1944; how there were no mass killings in Shargorod, but there was widespread hunger and sickness; what his mother told him about the war period; his family moving to Vinnytsia, Ukraine in 1946; his mother remarrying; moving to Chernovtsy; attending a university and working as a teacher; getting his doctorate in Kiev; working in International Economics Institute; writing several books and participating in international conferences; traveling to Germany; and his project to gather information on Soviet Jewish victims and survivors of Holocaust (his book on this topic is Holocaust In The Ukraine).
Oral history interview with Fira Mateyevna Zamenskaya
Oral History
Fira Mateyevna Zamenskaya (née Cherepinskiy), born in 1925, discusses her younger brother; living in Shpola, Cherkask oblast, Ukraine; the large Jewish population in Shpola; her parents; attending school; her family not being very religious but observing holidays; hearing stories about Jewish persecution in Germany in the 1930s; her family attempting to flee in the first days of the war; the establishment of the ghetto; police raids from time to time in ghetto; how a group of men in good physical condition were marched off; relatives raising her brother during the war; her father working on a state farm during the war and being taken to a concentration camp; working at the police headquarters with a friend and hearing about a roundup planned for that night; leaving town with her mother and being given refuge by a Ukrainian woman in the countryside; going to Zlatopol (now part of Novomyrhorod), Ukraine; finding that her aunt and cousins had been shot in Zlatopol; going to the local camp and being sent on a work detail; a round up in the fall of 1942 and escaping the camp; returning to Shpola; being hidden in a barn by a neighbor and finding her mother there; going to a state farm; being liberated on March 8, 1943; marrying in 1952; and working in kindergarten for 40 years.
