Overview
- Interview Summary
- Nina Yufa, born in 1941, and Leonid Yufa, born in 1938, describe living in Kharkiv, Ukraine; their parents’ professions; how the KGB took Nina’s father; not being allowed to practice Judaism; the conditions under the Soviet government; how Nina’s mother tried to leave with her children; how Leonid’s family evacuated, except for his brother who was not allowed because of his mental disability; a massacre in Haika, the antisemitism in the Soviet Union, and how the interviewees’ parents were active in communist organizations (told by the translator and daughter of the interviewees, Irina Yufa); how Nina’s family was in Uzbekistan when the Nazis invaded Kharkiv and Leonid’s family was hiding in Siberia; the conditions in Siberia and Uzbekistan, including food and their parents’ jobs; returning to Kharkiv, where Leonid’s apartment was relatively untouched and Nina’s was destroyed; how Nina was sick with tropical malaria during the evacuation and was often sick as a child; being Jewish in the Soviet Union and how it affected their faith; being Jewish in the Soviet Union versus the United States; practicing Judaism after the fall of the Soviet Union; how Irina immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 and her family followed in 1993; antisemitism in higher education in the Soviet Union; Leonid’s thoughts on Hitler; the unfinished Jewish state Stalin planned in Siberia; and a monument that was built in Kharkiv.
- Interviewee
- Leonid Yufa
- Interviewer
- Alexzandra Caldwell
Irina Yufa
Mara Jevera Fulmer
Veronica Creed - Date
-
interview:
2010 November 07
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Mott Community College
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Oral histories.
- Extent
-
1 DVD : MPEG-4.
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
- Antisemitism--Soviet Union. Faith (Judaism) Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Ukraine--Personal narratives. Holocaust survivors--United States. Jewish refugees--Russia--Siberia. Jewish refugees--Uzbekistan. Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Ukraine. Jews--Persecutions--Ukraine. Jews--Soviet Union--Identity. Jews--United States--Identity. Malaria. Men--Personal narratives. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Kharkiv (Ukraine) Siberia (Russia) United States--Emigration and immigration. Uzbekistan.
- Personal Name
- Yufa, Leonid, 1938- Yufa, Nina, 1941-
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Mara Jevera Fulmer
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Mara Jevera Fulmer, on behalf of Mott Community College, in partnership with Jewish Community Services of Flint, MI, donated the November 7, 2011 oral history interview with Leonid Yufa and Nina Yufa to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Oral History Branch in December 2011.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:21:03
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn45447
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Oral History
Leonid Litvak, born near Odesa, Ukraine, describes his prewar childhood; his father's involvement in the Communist Party; his father's forced relocation to Vladivostok, Russia in 1934 due to his communist ties; his escape, along with his mother and brother, from their forced relocation to Vladivostok; living with his aunt near Moldova; his father's imprisonment in 1937 by the KGB; his experiences during Nazi bombings; the Nazi-mandated evacuation of everyone in the village; his brother's job identifying Nazi spies for the Russian Army; and his mental breakdown after a near death experience during the war.
