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Anna S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2514) interviewed by Pamela Gordon,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2514

Videotape testimony of Anna S., who was born in Minsk, Belarus in 1930. She recounts living in Bielsk; not knowing she was Jewish until German invasion; her father's draft into the Soviet army; traveling with her mother to Minsk; fires and chaos; their journey to relatives in Dorogobuzhskiĭ; a brief visit from her father; traveling to Gorky (Nizhniĭ Novgorod) as the Germans advanced, then to Astrakhanʹ; living with a non-Jewish family for one year; German bombings; fleeing to Tashkent; assistance from the Bukharan Jewish community; living in Kattaqurghon; returning to Minsk in 1944; wide-scale destruction; her mother learning that all their relatives were killed; reunion with her father in August 1945; moving to Jūrmala, then Rīga; anti-Russian sentiment from Latvians; not telling her son he was Jewish until he experienced antisemitic incidents in school; deciding to emigrate; moving to Vienna with her husband, then to the United States; and her son joining them after seven years as a "refusenik." Mrs. S. discusses her father's experiences and learning of the Holocaust after the war.

Author/Creator
S., Anna, 1930-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1992
Interview Date
June 18, 1992.
Locale
Minsk (Belarus)
Belarus
Bielsk Podlaski (Poland)
Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
Kattaqŭrghon tumani (Uzbekistan)
Rīga (Latvia)
Jūrmala (Latvia)
Vienna (Austria)
Dorogobuzhskiĭ raĭon (Russia)
Nizhniĭ Novgorod (Russia)
Astrakhanʹ (Russia)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Anna S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2514). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.