Physical Description
Well used wrist compass with a clear glass bezel set into a 2 part, circular, metal housing: a rotating, copper colored top and a black painted base. Around the interior is a thick, flat, metal ring with 2 sets of painted black Arabic numerals and lines to mark angular mils, 50 to 550, and degrees, 15 to 345; Cyrillic directional letters replace degrees 90, 180, and 270; an inverted triangle replaces 0/360/600. The central needle locks into place by pushing in a metal exterior tab, which pushes up a lever beneath the needle. Two small, inward pointing arrows for navigation are attached to the interior housing, above the ring. There is radioluminescent paint below each letter, on the triangles, and on the end of the needle. Two small, metal sighting plates are screwed to the top exterior housing. Two brackets are fixed on the top and bottom of the base. An 11 inch, thin, narrow, worn, removable, dark brown leather wrist band with a metal buckle and 6 punched holes passes under the flat base and through both brackets.
Dimensions
overall : 2.250 x 2.375 x 0.750 in. (5.715 x 6.032 x 1.905 cm.)
Materials
overall : metal, glass, leather, paint, radium paint
Markings
overall : face, center, embossed : МАСТЕРСКИЕ АУ РККА [Workshops AU Red Army]
overall : back, engraved : 1940
Inscription
overall : back, scratched : ЦRЕМКОP [personal name]
Contributor
Subject:
Khona Padison
Manufacturer:
Soviet Union, Soviet Army
Biography
Khona Padison was born in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania to an Orthodox Jewish couple, Perets and Rakhel Kronik Padison. He had one sister, Kheina-Maia (Hena). His mother Rakhel was born in approximately 1900, in Vilno, Russia (Vilnius, Lithuania), to Itzik and Kheina Kronik. His father Perets was born in 1903, in Ukmerge, Russia (now Lithuania), to Mordekhai and Sara Padison. Perets had one brother, Shmuel. Khona and Hena were raised in the large Jewish community in Kovno. Khona’s uncle Shmuel married Khaia and they had a son, Gdalia.
In summer 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania. They abolished Jewish social and cultural institutions and closed Hebrew schools. In June 1941, Germany occupied Lithuania. Before and during the invasion, there were Lithuanian initiated pogroms. By November, German mobile killing units, assisted by Lithuanian auxiliaries, massacred most of the Jews throughout the country. In July, Khona, his sister, Hena, and his parents, Perets and Rakhel, were forced into the Kovno ghetto, and most likely used as forced labor. In fall 1943, Khona and Perets escaped the ghetto, just before it was converted to Kauen concentration camp. They made their way to nearby Rudnicki forest, where they became members of the partisan group, Death to the Invaders. Khona and Perets were assigned to a reconnaissance unit with 30-40 fighters, 90 percent of them Jewish. The group was part of a large network of resistance units, which worked to help people escape the ghettos and attacked German forces and supply depots. Khona's reconnaissance duties included scouting around an intended ambush site for information useful for planning attacks. Khona participated in scouting missions until June 1944. In early July, the Soviet Army was approaching the region. The Germans evacuated Kauen and burned down the camp. On August 1, the Soviet Army, with partisans from several units, including Death to the Invaders, liberated the region. Khona later learned that his mother Rakhel and sister Hena had been killed in the camp earlier that year. Several members of his paternal family were killed in the Ukmerge ghetto, including his grandfather Mordekhai, aunt Khaia, and cousin Gdalia.
On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. Khona and his father Perets stayed in Lithuania. Perets married Slava Schuster Padison, Rakhel’s cousin. Khona married Ada and the couple had a son. They all eventually immigrated to Israel and settled in Rehovot. Perets, 96, died in 1999, in Gedera, Israel.
