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Zvi Z. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1833) interviewed by Orna Almog and Shlomit Mahler,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1833

Videotape testimony of Zvi Z., the youngest of ten children, who was raised in Kozin, Poland (presently Ukraine). He recalls moving to Dubno; marriage; Soviet occupation in 1939; a son's birth in 1930 and a daughter's in 1940; working for the Soviets in Shegyni, Dubno, and Nemilov; German invasion in 1941; capture by Germans; falling into the pit during a mass shooting of Jews; climbing out at night through heaps of bodies and the wounded; returning to his home in Dubno; ghettoization; hiding during round-ups for mass killings; his son's murder; working in Kovelʹ processing Soviets being sent to Germany as slave laborers; a Soviet officer advising him to escape; accompanying the officer to Ruz︠h︡yn where they killed a German; stealing Soviet documents; a photographer assisting him in placing his and his family's photographs on the Soviet documents in exchange for documents for him and his family; acquiring clothing in which to escape; visiting Kozin to see his parents and siblings; escaping from the Dubno ghetto with his wife, daughter, and other relatives; a non-Jew whose life he had saved assisting them board a train to Odesa; using their forged papers to obtain housing; feigning deafness so his accent would not be recognized (his wife spoke without an accent); earning a lot of money by trading with partisans; fleeing to Romania in 1944; liberation by Soviet troops in 1945; working for the Soviets; moving to Bucharest; assistance from the Joint and the Red Cross; moving to Constanța; illegal emigration to Palestine in 1946; interdiction by the British; incarceration in ʻAtlit for over a year; and his son's birth in 1950. Mr. Z. notes being the only survivor of his immediate family, and, in 1969, receiving a journal that his sister had kept during the war, which he donated to Yad Vashem.

Author/Creator
Z., Zvi.
Published
Ramat Aviv, Israel : Beth Hatefutsoth, Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, 1987
Interview Date
January 27 and February 13, 1987.
Locale
Ukraine
Dubno
Dubno (Ukraine)
Shegyni (Ukraine)
Nemilov (Ukraine)
Kozin (Ukraine)
Ruz︠h︡yn (Ukraine)
Odesa (Ukraine)
Kovelʹ (Ukraine)
Bucharest (Romania)
Constanța (Romania)
Palestine
ʻAtlit (Israel)
Language
Hebrew
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Zvi Z. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1833). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4284603
Record last modified: 2018-05-30 11:51:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4284603