Irving F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-927) interviewed by Dana L. Kline and Helen Katz

Videotape testimony of Irving F., who was born in Stepangorodok, Poland in 1915. He recalls his youth in an observant family; attending yeshiva in Baranowicze in 1932; returning there later to marry and live; the birth of a child in 1940; and a decrease in antisemitic acts after the Soviet occupation. He describes the German invasion; imposition of anti-Jewish measures; ghettoization and formation of the Judenrat; forced labor for Organisation Todt; and the disappearance of some 6,000 Jews in a March 1942 Aktion. Mr. F. tells of constructing hideouts for use during round-ups; the killing of his wife, child and in-laws; escaping before the ghetto's liquidation in December 1942; hiding; and joining the Lavrentii Pavlovich Beriia partisan brigade. He discusses Soviet supplies and advisors; women in partisan ranks; serving in the intelligence unit; and work as a factory manager after liberation. He recounts his decision to escape to the West; learning in Föhrenwald refugee camp that a brother was alive in Poland; returning there illegally to find him; emigrating from Föhrenwald to the United States in 1949; and his experiences since.