- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Vladimir S., who was born in Daugavpils, Russia (presently Latvia) in 1916, one of five brothers. He recalls moving to Polatsk in 1928; his father's death from war wounds; attending a Jewish school; moving to Leningrad (presently St. Petersburg); working, then attending military academy; assignment as a communications officer in Eĭsk; German invasion; mobilization of three brothers; participating in several battles with high casualty rates; capture near Smolensk; incarceration in Monastyrshchina; having no food or shelter and sleeping onthe ground; transfer to a camp near Biała Podlaska; posing as a non-Jew; escaping with a large group; hiding with Jews; smuggling himself into the Biała Podlaska ghetto in September 1941; acquiring legal documents; forced labor at an airport; round-ups; escaping in summer 1942; joining Jewish partisans; his command position due to his military training and experience; blowing up trains and obtaining arms and food; moving to Pinsk; joining a Soviet group; retreating when surrounded by German troops in January 1943; living in swamps and forests until April; organizing a platoon near Pinsk; learning of partisans who killed Jews; German bombings in winter 1944; retreating to Ukraine; additional training in Kiev in 1945; reunion with one brother who had been seriously wounded; finding his mother and younger brother; returning to Pinsk; receiving many medals for his military and partisan service; meeting a childhood friend in Minsk; traveling to Warsaw; appointment as a commander of communications; reaching Berlin, Prague, then Karlovy Vary; meeting those returning from concentration camps; returning to Leningrad; living with his mother and brother; attending university; marriage to a physician in 1948; teaching in Hrodna; encountering individual and government anitsemitism; the birth of two children; returning to Leningrad to be near his family; and emigration to Israel in 1990. Mr. S. notes many relatives who were killed in the war; many who left the Soviet Union; and pride as an Israeli.
- Author/Creator
- S., Vladimir, 1916-
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1995
- Interview Date
- February 16, April 16, April 19, May 2, and June 1, 1995.
- Locale
- Poland
Biała Podlaska
Belarus
Russia
Daugavpils (Latvia)
Polatsk (Belarus)
Saint Petersburg (Russia)
Eĭsk (Russia)
Monastyrshchinskiĭ raĭon (Russia)
Smolensk (Russia)
Biała Podlaska (Poland)
Pinsk (Belarus)
Kiev (Ukraine)
Minsk (Belarus)
Warsaw (Poland)
Berlin (Germany)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic)
Hrodna (Belarus)
- Cite As
- Vladimir S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3743). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Russian.
