Leah P. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3632)

Videotape testimony of Leah P., who was born in Rafalivka, Poland (presently Ukraine) in 1918, one of five children. She recounts the deaths of her father and one brother; another brother's emigration to Argentina; attending an ORT school in Kovelʹ for three years; returning home; increasing antisemitism in the 1930s; participating in Hashomer Hatzair and Betar; marriage in 1939; Soviet occupation; her son's birth in 1940; German invasion; fleeing to the forest with her son; a local German hiding them; returning home; ghettoization; a Ukrainian guard helping her mother, son, and sister escape; her sister's capture; hiding with non-Jews (they had to leave after several weeks); her mother returning home to look for valuables, her capture, and murder; living with non-Jews in several villages; her husband sending for her and her son (her sisters remained behind); hiding with non-Jews on the “Aryan” side, then with villagers; joining a partisan unit; working as a cook; hiding with a non-Jewish family (the partisans provided food); returning to Rafalivka, then crossing into Soviet territory; and traveling to Kiev and Bila T︠S︡erkva, where they found work. Ms. P. notes learning after the war that her two sisters had been killed.