Overview
- Interview Summary
- Tania Lefman describes growing up on the border of Poland and Ukraine and living under the Polish regime until 1939; experiencing a good childhood; her father’s death when Tania was eight years old; the Russian invasion in 1939 and the decline of their standard of living; the German occupation beginning in 1941; being evicted from their home and forced to wear a yellow star; being sent with her family to the ghetto in Korets’, Ukraine, where they shared a small apartment with three other families; the Germans selecting Jews from the ghetto, separating them by gender, making them dig graves, and the subsequent massacre of the Jews; escaping the ghetto with her mother after one year; hiding in the woods with two other families in an underground bunker; living in constant fear and without warm clothing and food; being liberated by the partisans in 1944; the threat to survivors in Korets; going to an UNRRA displaced persons camps in Germany, where she lived for five years and met her future husband Henry Lefman; immigrating to the United States in 1950 and feeling free for the first time; marrying Henry in 1951; her two sons, one daughter, and five grandchildren; and feeling lucky to live in the US.
- Interviewee
- Tania Lefman
- Interviewer
- Jonathan Lefman
- Date
-
interview:
2016 July 10
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jonathan Lefman
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
1 digital file : MPEG-4.
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--Rivnens'ka oblast'. Holocaust survivors--United States. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives. Jewish ghettos--Ukraine--Korets'. Jewish refugees--Germany. Jews--Persecutions--Ukraine--Korets'. Jews--Poland. Mass burials--Ukraine--Korets'. Massacres--Ukraine--Korets'. Rationing--Poland. Refugee camps--Germany. Shooting (Execution)--Ukraine--Korets'. Star of David badges. World War, 1939-1945--Children--Poland. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Poland. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Germany. Korets' (Ukraine) Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945. Rivnens'ka oblast' (Ukraine) Ukraine--History--German occupation, 1941-1944.
- Personal Name
- Lefman, Tania.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Jonathan Lefman donated the oral history interview with Tania Lefman to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on October 10, 2016. The interview was conducted on July 10, 2016.
- Funding Note
- 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 09:39:54
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn555285
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