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Oral history interview with Philip Gregorivich Portyansky

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1287.26 | RG Number: RG-50.226.0026

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    Oral history interview with Philip Gregorivich Portyansky

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Philip Gregorivich Portyansky, born in 1925 in Kamenka (Kam'ianka), Ukraine, describes the Jewish community of Kamenka and the local synagogue; warnings from Polish Jewish refugees about the cruelty of German forces; the inability of his family to flee Kamenka at the beginning of the war; the bombing of his village by German forces; a pogrom in his village which killed many Jews; hiding from German soldiers in the home of a friend and then leaving for the village of Rebedaevka (Rebedaĭlivka), Ukraine; the threat from German authorities that those caught helping Jews would be killed; staying with a friend of his father's in Rebedaevka; learning that everyone from Kamenka who could not escape the pogrom were killed; traveling to the village of Revovka (Revivka), Ukraine and finding his mother and sister; working in a field and living in the house of a friend who hid them from German soldiers; the headman of Revovka’s demand for his family’s documents; returning to Kamenka and receiving registration numbers and badges indicating that they were Jews; discovering another family living in his house in Kamenka; the family’s refusal to leave; living with his uncle; working for the Germans; his family’s transfer to Jurchikha to work; local townspeople giving them food; their transfer to an internment camp; poor living conditions and a sympathetic policeman in the camp; the head policeman who helped his family escape the camp; escaping the camp with his mother and sister and going to Revovka; leaving Revovka and traveling toward the front; hiding their identification documents so they would not be identified as Jewish; telling people in Kirovogradski that they were from Donbass and lost their documents; a woman from the village giving them shelter; working with his mother and sister; an incident in which his mother was taken to the commandant's office by the village headman who said that she was Jewish; his mother’s release from the commandant’s office after she insisted that she was Ukrainian; leaving Kirovogradski; his mother's acquisition of documents providing them with Ukrainian identities; escaping detainment by authorities with the forged documents; receiving paperwork to travel to Donbass but traveling to the village Potoki instead where they lived and worked; changing his birth year to avoid being taken to Germany; receiving anti-German leaflets from partisan groups in 1942; escaping from local police in 1942; Russian soldiers from the secret service entering Kamenka in 1943; avoiding being drafted because of his youthful appearance; receiving a promotion to brigade leader in the village as a result of being a good worker; discovering that his father was alive; and his life after the war.
    Interviewee
    Philip G. Portyanksy
    Date
    interview:  1994 August 06
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Russian
    Extent
    5 videocassettes (U-Matic) : sound, color ; 3/4 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

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak, project director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History Branch, coordinated the interview with Philip Gregorivich Portyansky in Ukraine on August 6, 1994. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview in March 1995.
    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 08:22:19
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn511933

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