Abraham S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-615) interviewed by Suzanne Horn, Lucille B. Ritvo, and Frances Proctor Cohen,

Videotape testimony of Abraham S., who was born in Vilna in 1924. In this unusually detailed testimony, Mr. S. speaks of prewar family and community life; Polish antisemitism; the beginning of German occupation; Russian occupation; the ghettoization of Vilna; and the mass shootings at nearby Ponary. He describes the razing of the city's synagogues; the frequent Aktions, physical abuse, and forced labor that marked the life of the ghetto; and the ghetto's liquidation in August, 1943, recalling throughout acts of kindness offered by various non-Jews. He relates his transport by cattle car to Estonia, where he was interned as a slave laborer in numerous camps, including those in Ereda, Narwa, and Reval, explicitly detailing the brutality to which he was subjected. He tells of his transfer to Stutthof, recalling with vivid detail the conditions there; the death march in February, 1945 to Danzig, then across the Vistula to a small camp near Lauenburg, and his liberation there by the Russians. Mr. S. also recounts his enlistment into a Russian infantry unit, with which he fought in Germany and in Poland; his discharge from the army and return to Vilna; and his marriage and the birth of his son in 1948.