- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Chaia P., who was born in Kaminʹ-Kashyrsʹkyĭ, Poland (presently Ukraine) in 1922, one of three children. She recounts attending a Polish school; participating in Hechalutz; Soviet occupation in fall 1939; a Soviet soldier, who lived with them, offering to take her family when the Soviets retreated; her father's decision to remain; German invasion; a round-up that included her father and brother; a relative on the Judenrat ascertaining they had been shot; ghettoization; a Ukrainian friend smuggling food to them; exemption from a mass killing due to their jobs; Romanies, whom her family had helped, assisting her escape an execution; hiding in a bunker with her family and others; discovery by the Germans; escaping to another bunker; a non-Jew hiding her and three women with his wife's sister; observing shootings of Jews; hiding in their rescuers' barn, basement, a bunker, and with another of his wife's sisters; going to the forest during conflicts between Ukrainians and Poles; joining her cousin's friend's partisan unit; meeting her future husband; posing as a man; helping care for children in the family camp; moving to a swamp when a German attack was imminent; traveling to Rafalovka, then Sarny; draft by the Soviet military; being sent to Kiev, then Kharkiv; separation from her future husband; joining his family in Kovelʹ; returning home; leaving after being warned by non-Jews returning Jews were being murdered; reunion with her future husband in Kovelʹ; marriage; traveling to Chełm, Lublin, then Kraków; assistance from the Jewish Brigade; traveling to Budapest, Graz, Modena, then Santa Maria with Beriḥah; visiting Rome and Milan; illegal emigration by ship to Palestine in 1945; staying with her aunt; the births of two daughters; and her husband's death in 1948. Ms. P. notes she is the sole survivor of her immediate family.
- Author/Creator
- P., Chaia, 1922-
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1996
- Interview Date
- August 30 and November 21, 1996.
- Locale
- Ukraine
Kaminʹ-Kashyrsʹkyĭ
Poland
Kaminʹ-Kashyrsʹkyĭ (Ukraine)
Rafalivka (Manevyt︠s︡ʹkyĭ raĭon, Ukraine)
Sarny (Rivnensʹka oblastʹ, Ukraine)
Kiev (Ukraine)
Kharkiv (Ukraine)
Kovelʹ (Ukraine)
Chełm (Lublin, Poland)
Lublin (Poland)
Kraków (Poland)
Budapest (Hungary)
Graz (Austria)
Modena (Italy)
Santa Maria di Leuca, Cape (Italy)
Milan (Italy)
Rome (Italy)
Palestine
- Cite As
- Chaia P. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3841). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Hebrew.
