- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Leon W., who was born in Stoyanóv, Poland in 1926. He recalls moving to Lʹvov in 1934; Soviet occupation in 1939; German occupation in 1941; arrest with his father and one brother; release three days later; learning most of those arrested had been shot; forced labor; and incarceration in Janowska in 1942. Mr. W. tells of working as a glazier; catching typhus which resulted in his selection; watching those in front being shot in a mass grave; being called out to remove corpses to the mass grave; and escaping by running into a large group of prisoners. He describes escape from Janowska; returning home; traveling to Stoyanóv; work on a farm; learning his four sisters had been taken in the liquidation of Stoyanóv and his parents had been deported; returning to Lʹvov; living with his two brothers until June 1943; their selection; and his return to Janowska. Mr. W. relates work in a "Death Brigade" that unearthed mass graves and burned the bodies; the uprising and escape of his "Death Brigade" in November 1943; being hidden by a Catholic family with twenty other Jews; and liberation by Soviet troops. Mr. W. discusses participation as a witness at the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials and many aspects of his experiences in this detailed and insightful testimony.
- Author/Creator
- W., Leon, 1925-2009.
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1986
- Interview Date
- November 15, 1986.
- Locale
- Ukraine
Lʹviv
Jerusalem
Germany
Stuttgart
Poland
Lʹviv (Ukraine)
Stoyanów (Ukraine)
- Cite As
- Leon W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-788). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Sicular, Lilian, interviewer.
Tobin, Phyllis O. Ziman, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: The death brigade = The Janowska road / Leon Weliczker Wells. -- New York : Holocaust Library, c1978.
Related publication: Shattered faith : a Holocaust Legacy / Leon W. Wells. -- Lexington, KY : University Press of Kentucky, c1995.
Associated material: Leon Weliczker Wells Papers (MS 1463). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
