Oral history interview with Rachael Frydman

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1992.A.0123.1.2 | RG Number: RG-50.035.01.0002

Overview

Interview Summary: Rachael Frydman (née Alperowicz), born May 8, 1926, discusses her life in a Kurzeniec, Poland (now Kurenets, Belarus) before World War II; the lack of a Jewish ghetto in her town because it was so small; how the Germans arrived abruptly in June 1941; her sister leaving with a neighbor; how there was no full government established yet, only the army; how once the Gestapo came, gold and silver was demanded from everyone via the Jewish Committee; the selection process, during which individuals age 16 and up were taken away; being made to work; how just before the high holidays approximately 50 men and a few women, including her neighbors across the street and two cousins, were slaughtered in the streets and how one man escaped; the specific men who committed atrocities; working as a cleaning lady; the liquidation three days before the high holiday; hiding with her family in a false attic her brother had built; a neighbor reporting on them to the Germans; a family down the street committing suicide by starting a fire; sneaking out of the attic and hiding in the woods and losing track of her brother; living in a hole in the ground with 18 people; her mother being caught; how the forest was divided by numbers and each village had a part of the forest; the Germans surrounding their area of the forest on April 29, 1943; escaping the Germans; not joining partisan groups but making them food; the rainy summer of 1943; hearing that her brother was alive in the Vilna ghetto; going to several villages before returning to the woods; hearing that her brother was sent to Estonia; searching for her brother in villages, partisan groups, and the forest; finding him in the forest; and being shot at by German soldiers, but avoiding being hit by running in a zig-zag.
Interviewee: Rachael Frydman
Interviewer: Renate Frydman
Date: interview: 1987 May 19

Physical Details

Language: English
Extent: 4 videocassettes (VHS) : 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

Topical Term: Forced labor. Guerrillas--Belarus. Hiding places--Belarus. Holocaust survivors--United States. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Belarus--Personal narratives. Jewish councils--Belarus--Kurenets. Jewish women in the Holocaust. Jews--Belarus--Kurenets. Mass murder--Belarus. Massacres--Belarus--Kurenets. Suicide victims. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities--Belarus. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Belarus. World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance--Belarus. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Belarus. Women--Personal narratives.
Geographic Name: Belarus--History--German occupation, 1941-1944. Germany--Armed Forces--Belarus. Kurenets (Belarus) Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945. Poland.
Personal Name: Frydman, Rachael, 1926-
Corporate Name: Germany. Gestapo Germany. Heer

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: Renate Frydman conducted the interview with Rachael Frydman on May 19, 1987, in cooperation with Wright State University Television Center with support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received the tapes of the interview in 1992. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes via transfer from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch in February 1995.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive

Record last modified:: 2023-11-16 08:08:02
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn511609

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