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Jeshajahu P. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1740) interviewed by Brana Gurewitsch,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1740

Videotape testimony of Jeshajahu P., who was born in Stepanʹ, Poland in 1927. In this very detailed testimony, he recalls antisemitic violence; Soviet occupation in 1939; German invasion in June 1941; anti-Jewish regulations; humiliating forced labor; exchanging possessions for food with local farmers; ghettoization in late 1941; leaving valuables with a Polish friend; his father arranging for him to work outside the ghetto; smuggling extra food to his family; his father's and brother's disappearances; having to return to the ghetto; rumors of liquidation; escaping with his mother and sister; hiding with Polish farmers and in forests; connecting with Jews with assistance from Polish partisans; placing his sister with a Polish family; his mother's death from cold and hunger; retrieving his sister when it was warmer; avoiding Ukrainian groups who killed Jews; liberation by Soviet troops; living in Malynsk; traveling to Katowice, Bytom, and Kraków; anti-Jewish violence; assistance from UNRRA and the Joint; traveling to Germany and Italy with a group organizing illegal emigration to Palestine; British interception of their ship; nine-months incarceration in Cyprus; arriving in Palestine in March 1947; and his twenty-year military career. Mr. P. shows photographs.

Author/Creator
P., Jeshajahu, 1927-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1990
Interview Date
December 18, 1990.
Locale
Ukraine
Stepanʹ (Ukraine)
Poland
Malynsk (Ukraine)
Katowice (Poland)
Bytom (Poland)
Kraków (Poland)
Cyprus
Palestine
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Jeshajahu P. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1740). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.