Overview
- Interview Summary
- Boris Nemko discusses his experience in the Vilna ghetto (Vilnius, Lithuania); daily life in the ghetto and his ability to travel in and out of the ghetto on work detail; the harsh treatment of Jews in the ghetto by the Lithuanian and Jewish police; being interrogated and severely beaten by the Gestapo after he was caught outside the ghetto; how residents of the ghetto were sent to Ponary, where they were executed; the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto; being sent on a transport to the Vaivara concentration camp in Estonia; his life in the work camp; his transfer to another camp in Estonia; selections and the building of a crematorium; his and others’ escape attempts during forced labor; treatment by Estonian guards; how, using his tools as a shoemaker, he escaped with 21 other prisoners; hardships faced while hiding in the woods; help and lack of help he received from village residents; his liberation by the Russian Army; his return to Vilna; going to Poland where he found devastation; discovering that no none from his family survived the war; the murder of Jews by Polish citizens after the war; clandestinely entering Germany; and immigrating to the United States.
- Interviewee
- Boris Nemko
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Marty Nemko
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
2 sound cassettes (60 min.).
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use. Restrictions may exist. Contact the Museum for further information: reference@ushmm.org
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Concentration camp escapes. Concentration camp guards--Estonia. Concentration camp inmates--Selection process. Forced labor--Estonia. Hiding places--Estonia. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Lithuania--Personal narratives. Holocaust survivors--United States. Jewish ghettos--Lithuania--Vilnius. Jews--Lithuania--Vilnius. Jews--Persecutions--Lithuania. Men--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Estonia. Poland. United States--Emigration and immigration. Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Personal Name
- Nemko, Boris.
- Corporate Name
- Vaivara (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Dr. Marty Nemko donated his father Boris Nemko's self-recorded testimony to the United Stated Holocaust Memorial Museum's Oral History Branch in September 2011.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:26:32
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn44180
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