Jay M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-430) interviewed by Ian Russ,

Videotape testimony of Jay M., who was born in Białystok, Poland. He recounts growing up in a Jewish neighborhood; his father's emigration to the United States; German invasion; Soviet occupation a week later; German invasion in June 1941; a mass killing; ghettoization; the role of the Judenrat; hiding with his mother and sister during mass killings; working with his mother and sister at a munitions factory; hiding with his mother and sister in bunkers after liquidation of the ghetto was announced on August 16, 1943; constant fear of discovery; escaping to the forest in November 1943; learning his mother and sister were deported; bombing trains and attacking German forces with partisans; and liberation by Soviet troops in the summer of 1944. Mr. M. describes enlisting in the Soviet army; military training and service; attending officers' school; working as an instructor; his joy at learning in 1945 that his mother and sister had survived; returning to Poland in December 1946 after a difficult repatriation process; obtaining an illegal visa in Łódź; traveling to Vienna; and reunion with his mother and sister in Nuremberg in March 1947. He emphasizes the importance of never giving up and fighting against all odds.