Leonid B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3742)

Videotape testimony of Leonid B., who was born in Shpikov, Ukraine in 1921. He recounts his father's death when he was six; moving to Pohrebyshche; his mother's remarriage; moving to Kiev; attending a Jewish school, then a military school; completing training as an artillery officer two days before the German invasion in June; posting to Przemyśl; relocating to Korostenʹ; retreating with his unit through Ukraine and Belarus; witnessing the bombing of civilians; battles in Kiev and Poltava; being wounded; locals assisting him medically, providing false papers, and hiding him; moving to Cherkasy; briefly staying with his grandmother in Belozër'ye; capture; escaping his imminent execution; assistance from locals in several locations, including Ternivka; obtaining good false papers; establishing a partisan unit with others; joining an organized partisan group; many operations blowing up trains and battles with Germans; capture and escape; parachuting with others behind German lines; assisting local partisans in Poland in spring and summer 1944; and earning two advanced degrees after the war. Mr. B. notes he saved many Jews; being honored by several Polish and Czech towns; and writing books about his experiences.