Overview
- Interview Summary
- Leon Senders, born in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1923, describes his early life; being 17 when the war started; his father advising him to flee the area and go east; traveling with his friends to Russia; his feelings on losing his youth to the war; the death of his parents and other family members; the bombing of Vilna; being mobilized by the Russian Army; being sent to a special school in Moscow, Russia, where he was trained as a radio operator; flying on a DC-3 and parachuting into an area behind enemy lines; being given his orders to go to Konigsberg (Kaliningrad, Russia) and relay messages back to Russia; working with Jewish partisan groups to gather information; traveling with the partisans and experiencing heavy combat; how he and the partisans survived in the woods; fighting Lithuanians and Germans; returning home after the war and experiencing anguish over the loss of his family; deciding to leave Europe; finding one of his sisters, who survived Bergen-Belsen; and his reasons for speaking about the Holocaust.
- Subtitle
- Leon Senders' War
- Interviewee
- Leon Senders
- Date
-
interview:
1988 August 19
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Holocaust Eyewitness Project and Edith Fierst
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
2 videocassettes (U-Matic) : sound, color ; 3/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use. Donor retains copyright. Third party use requests must be submitted to the donor.
- Copyright Holder
- Holocaust Eyewitness Project
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Combat. Douglas DC-3 (Transport plane) Guerrillas. Holocaust survivors--United States. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Psychological aspects. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Study and teaching. Jewish partisans (Holocaust) Jews, Polish--Soviet Union. Jews--Lithuania--Vilnius. Jews--Migrations. Lithuanians. Military education--Soviet Union. Parachute troops--Soviet Union. Radio operators--Soviet Union. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Eastern Front. World War, 1939-1945--Military reconnaissance. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Veterans--Soviet Union. Men--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskaia oblast', Russia) Moscow (Russia) Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945. Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Personal Name
- Senders, Leon, 1923-
- Corporate Name
- Red Army (Soviet Union)
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The Holocaust Eyewitness Project produced the interview with Leon Senders on August 19, 1988 in the Washington, D.C. area. Edith Fierst, on behalf of the Holocaust Eyewitness Project, donated a copy of the interview to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 07:57:58
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn39561
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