Riva B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3266) [videorecording] / interviewed by Pinchas Agmon and Star Yelizovecki, August 2, 1994.

Kiev, Ukraine : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1994.

1 videorecording (2 hr., 1 min.) : col.

Russian; Ukrainian

This testimony is in Russian and Ukrainian.

Videotape testimony of Riva B., who was born in Nemirov, Ukraine in 1919. She recounts her father's death in a pogrom; her mother storing grain for a Ukrainian peasant and returning it during a famine, thus saving their lives; moving to Vinnyt︠s︡i︠a︡ in 1934; German invasion in June 1941; returning to Nemirov; German occupation in July; forced relocation; an uncle's appointment to the Judenrat; his warning of a mass killing in November; her mother, fleeing with her mother to Medvezhʹye, then Vinnyt︠s︡i︠a︡; returning to Nemirov with her mother and aunt to escape mass killings in May 1942; being hidden by their Ukrainian peasant friend in Osipenki; she and her aunt leaving; obtaining false papers with assistance from a non-Jewish friend in Vinnyt︠s︡i︠a︡; walking to Berdykovtse; working in Horodok; arrest and imprisonment in October; escaping from a mass killing claiming to be non-Jewish Ukrainian; fleeing to Deneshi; living with a Ukrainian family; joining the partisans; execution of a friend suspected of German collaboration; spying for and fighting with partisans; liberation by Soviet troops; reunion with her mother in May 1944; their move to Kiev; marriage; and her daughter's birth. She notes the limitations of words to convey these events; many non-Jews who saved them; sharing her experiences with her daughter and granddaughter; and desecration of a monument to the murdered Jews in Nemirov.

June 01, 2002

Riva B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3266). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Riva B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3266). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)