Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Oral history interview with Samuel Makower

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1998.A.0111 | RG Number: RG-50.030.0388

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward

    Oral history interview with Samuel Makower

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Samuel Makower, born on January 6, 1922 in Sosnowiec, Poland, describes his life, town, and family before the war; his experiences with antisemitism; participating in the Hashomer Hatzair youth organization; being forced with his family into Russian-controlled Białystok, where he stayed for three months; moving to a small town in the Ural Mountains, where he worked on a copper and gold mine; no longer practicing his faith once he was forced from his home; moving to Minsk on June 22, 1941 and the Germans forcing him into the Minsk ghetto in August; managing to get food from nearby peasants while in the ghetto; witnessing the pogroms committed by Ukrainian guards; going up to the Judenrat office to find work and often receiving construction jobs; escaping from the ghetto with a group of thirty people to join the Chicalifsky partisan group in the woods; blowing up trains and attacking Germans as part of his work for the partisans; receiving food and information about German forces closing in on the partisans from local peasants; meeting the Red Army in the forest and assisting them in fighting the Germans by cleaning up after attacks, blowing up remnants, and helping to liberate cities like Berlin; going to a displaced persons camp in Berlin, where he reunited with his mother, brothers, and sister; entering the university in Berlin in 1948 and meeting former German soldiers who he might have almost killed during the war; receiving his doctorate in chemistry and getting a job in Massachusetts in 1956; and reconciling with his past.
    Interviewee
    Samuel Makower
    Interviewer
    Randy M. Goldman
    Date
    interview:  1998 June 15

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Oral histories.
    Extent
    4 videocasettes (Betacam SP) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Makower, Samuel, 1922-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Randy M. Goldman, on behalf of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch, conducted the oral history interview with Samuel Makower on June 15, 1998.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:02:32
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn506410

    Additional Resources

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us