- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Mariia A., who was born in Belarus in 1912, one of six children, and her daughter Elizaveta Y., who was born in Besedʹ, Belarus in 1935. Mrs. A. recalls her father's death; being sent to live with relatives in another town; her arranged marriage in Besedʹ; moving to Lahoysk (Logoysk); German invasion; anti-Jewish measures; escape with her children from a mass killing; fleeing to Gayna; hiding in a forest; walking to Pleshchany, then to her mother's village; leaving her younger daughter with her mother; living with a convert from Judaism and her husband; her hosts being shot for contact with partisans; caring for their children until relatives claimed them; continuing contact with the partisans; liberation by Soviet troops; a futile search for her husband; returning with her children to Lahoysk; finding her home destroyed; living on a collective farm; and her continuing impoverishment. Mrs. A. notes that her mother, daughter, and other relatives were murdered in a mass killing in her hometown.
Mrs. Y. recalls Germans entering Lahoysk; being marched to a "pit" with her parents and siblings; separation from her father on the way; waiting while groups of Jews were shot in the pit; escaping to a forest with her mother and siblings; fleeing on foot; begging for food; living with a family; her hosts and their children being taken away; and returning to Lahoysk after the war. Mrs. Y. notes that her memories of her sister and her prewar childhood are vague. Mrs. A. and Mrs. Y. visit the site of the mass killing in Lahoysk and reconstruct their experiences.
- Author/Creator
- A., Mariia, 1912-
- Published
- Lahoysk, Belarus : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1995
- Interview Date
- August 7, 1995.
- Locale
- Belarus
Russia
Besedʹ (Belarus)
Gayna (Belarus)
Pleshchany (Belarus)
Lahoĭsk (Belarus)
- Cite As
- Mariia A. and Elizaveta Y. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3612). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Russian.
