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Oral history interview with Chaim Hermelin

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1272.386 | RG Number: RG-50.120.0386

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    Oral history interview with Chaim Hermelin

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Chaim Hermelin, born on January 1, 1927 in Radzivilov, Volhynia, Ukraine, describes his father, who owned a printing press and his mother, who was a housewife; having two older siblings; his sister’s death and his brother’s survival; having a Tarbut school education; his family’s Zionist and religious beliefs; his family moving in 1939 to Brody, Ukraine; the Russian invasion in 1941; witnessing deportations to Siberia; the German take over and the almot immediate roundups and killings; his father being shot; the fate of his grandfather; the “Aktions” and witnessing the mass murder of Jews; being forced to move to a ghetto, where he helped organize the underground; the Judenrat and the Jewish police; his job in the ghetto; running away to Piaksi then Komarivka and trying to find work on farms; joining the partisans and transferring to the Red Army as a trainee; being an aide to a major; the major sending him to study mechanics; his job maintaining the “fleet” of wagons and horses and later the vehicles of the army; his brother being taken to the Russian Army; reuniting with his brother over 14 years later in Israel; his parents and sister not surviving; life on the Gordonia kibbutz in Bytom, Poland; his work in the organization of illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine; living in Barletta, Italy; his efforts to get to Palestine and being stopped by the British; spending time in a detention camp in Cyprus, from which he escaped after a period of three months and ten days; how when he returned home, he stopped being observant, but returned to his faith after one of his sons was killed during the Yom Kippur War; and his thoughts on the future of Israel.
    Interviewee
    Chaim Hermelin
    Date
    interview:  2000 November 16
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Hebrew
    Extent
    7 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
    Hermelin, Chaim, 1927-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak, project director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History Branch, coordinated the interview with Chaim Hermelin on November 16, 2000. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview on August 31, 2001.
    Funding Note
    The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
    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 08:16:34
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn509369

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