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Leon F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1867) interviewed by Rayzl Kalifowicz-Waletsky,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1867

Videotape testimony of Leon F., who was born in Berez︠h︡any, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (now Ukraine) in 1908. Mr. F. recalls hiding with his family when the town was burned in World War I; antisemitic harassment; attending yeshiva in Stanisławów; membership in Hashomer Hatzair; attending medical school in Prague and theological school in Frankfurt; working as a gynecologist in Warsaw; his father's death in 1938; German invasion; draft into the Polish military; finding his unit had been destroyed in Mińsk Mazowiecki; escaping to the Soviet occupied zone; imprisonment as a spy; draft into the Soviet military; assignment to front lines in Finland in 1941; returning to Soviet territory; organizing surgical units; German attack in 1941; participating in Yom Kippur services with Jews near Kineshma; joining Armia Ludowa; liberating Polish cities, then Berlin; entering Hitler's chancellory; returning to Poland; helping to collect Jewish children from Catholic institutions in the Łódź area; discharge; leaving Poland due to antisemitism; working in Schlactensee and other displaced persons camps organized by UNRRA in Berlin; marriage to a Jewish nurse he had met during the war; emigrating to the United States in 1948; and working as a gynecologist. Dr. F. discusses episodes during the war and after; his identity with his family's rabbinical heritage; his mother's difficult life; and his interest in Jewish rescue by non-Jews. He shows artifacts.

Author/Creator
F., Leon, 1908-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1991
Interview Date
November 6, 1991.
Locale
Austria
Berez︠h︡any (Ukraine)
Stanislav (Ukraine)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
Warsaw (Poland)
Mińsk Mazowiecki (Poland)
Kineshma (Russia)
Finland
Berlin (Germany)
Łódź (Poland)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Leon F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1867). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.