Portrait of David Fiszman as a soldier in the Red Army.
Overview
- Caption
- Portrait of David Fiszman as a soldier in the Red Army.
- Date
-
Circa 1944
- Locale
- Poland?
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Joseph Fiszman
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Joseph Fiszman
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- David Fiszman was born to a Jewish family in Rovno, Poland on October 14, 1914. His father’s name was Moses, and he had an older brother and sister. Both his parents died from typhus when he was an infant, leaving him and his siblings orphaned. David’s older sister, who was then twelve years old, raised him and his brother, living in other people’s attics. Through living in attics and rooftops, he became very fond of homing pigeons, and spent time caring for them and participating in local races. When his older sister married at age 16, she continued to care for her brothers, and they were once again able to live as a family in their own home. David was able to attend school for a time
David was an active, precocious boy, and recalled his childhood as full of adventures and exploits. On one occasion, while in the third grade of his religious school, he glued the rabbi’s beard to a desk while the rabbi was asleep in class. When the rabbi awoke, David jumped out the window of the school, thereby ending his formal education. Another escapade involved a neighbor who regularly took a trip to a nearby lake to wash his horse and enjoy a day of leisure. He would never take the neighborhood children with him, so as a good-natured prank David organized a group that sneaked into the neighbor’s shed, disassembled his wagon, and reassembled it on the neighbor’s roof. Only when the neighbor agreed to take them to the lake would they take the wagon down from the roof.
Upon reaching adulthood, David married, and they had a child. When WWI began, he was conscripted into the Soviet army and forced to leave them. Though he was initially offered a post in Siberia, he refused that offer and ended up spending much of the war on the front lines. He had many harrowing experiences, including surviving the German blitz from Rovno to Moscow. He was wounded four times. A bullet shot in one of his legs caused such extensive damage that he was scheduled to have it amputated, but he managed to circumvent this by bribing the hospital guard with a blanket. He would live with the bullet in his leg for the rest of his life. He also sustained a shrapnel wound to the face, which caused the loss of all his teeth. With his unit, he advanced as far west as Berlin, and liberated a number of concentration camps. While in Berlin, he and a fellow soldier were shot by a sniper, while walking across a bridge. The bullet hit his medal, ricocheted off, went through his arm, and he survived only by jumping off the bridge. His friend survived as well, but lost both of his legs. After the war, David stayed in the Berlin area for about six months, possibly providing translating services. He and his wife had lost touch with each other in the chaos of the war, and he later learned that his wife and child had moved first to Samarkand, Uzbekistan then eventually to Israel.
Following his stay in Berlin, he returned to Rovno, where he fought in a guerilla war against the Ukrainian Nationalists. At one point, he was tasked with providing protection for a young Russian woman named Aleksandra from Omsk, who had just finished pharmacy school. She had been put in charge of establishing a pharmacy in the city, which made her a target for the Nationalists. David and Aleksandra would later marry. For several years, they continued living in Rovno, where they had two children. In 1957, they moved to western Poland, where their third child was born. In 1971, they immigrated to the United States. He died on December 19, 2000.
- Record last modified:
- 2020-03-31 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1185118
