- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Shalom Y., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1924, the younger of two brothers. He recalls moving to Raciąż; attending Hebrew school; antisemitic harassment; German invasion; fleeing to Płońsk, then Gąbin; returning home; anti-Jewish restrictions; fleeing a round-up with assistance from the mayor and an ex-employee; staying with relatives in Płońsk, then moving to Warsaw; escaping to Soviet-occupied Białystok in January 1940; joining relatives in Rivne, then Ashmi︠a︡ny; moving to Smarhonʹ; German invasion; fleeing to Kurenet︠s︡; contacts with escaped Soviet POWs and forming a resistance group; escaping with his brother to a forest during a round-up in fall 1942 (he never saw his parents again); building a bunker for the winter; forming a Jewish partisan group in April 1943; Soviet assistance and orders to blow up trains, attack Germans, etc.; executing German prisoners; liberation in July 1944; traveling to Minsk; conscription with his brother into the Soviet military; transfer to the Polish army; first learning of gas chambers; briefly returning home; protecting other Jews from violent attacks; advancing to Dresden in May 1945; discharge; traveling to Kraków, then Graz displaced persons camp via Prague and Budapest; illegal emigration to Palestine via Italy and Port Said (his brother remained in Paris); and emigration to the United States in 1978. Mr. Y. notes he, his brother, and relatives in Israel are the sole survivors of his large extended family. He shows photographs.
- Author/Creator
- Y., Shalom, 1924-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1990
- Interview Date
- December 5, 1990.
- Locale
- Belarus
Poland
Warsaw (Poland)
Raciąż (Województwo Mazowieckie, Poland)
Gąbin (Poland)
Płońsk (Poland)
Białystok (Poland)
Rivne (Rivnensʹka oblastʹ, Ukraine)
Ashmi︠a︡ny (Belarus)
Smarhonʹ (Belarus)
Kurenet︠s︡ (Belarus)
Minsk (Belarus)
Dresden (Germany)
Kraków (Poland)
Budapest (Hungary)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Italy
Port Said (Egypt)
Palestine
- Cite As
- Shalom Y. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1731). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Pery, Jaschael, interviewer.
