Jay M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-430) [videorecording] / interviewed by Ian Russ, June 18, 1983.

Los Angeles, Calif. : UCLA Holocaust Documentation Archives, 1983.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 27 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Jay M., who was born in Białystok, Poland. He recounts growing up in a Jewish neighborhood; his father's emigration to the United States; German invasion; Soviet occupation a week later; German invasion in June 1941; a mass killing; ghettoization; the role of the Judenrat; hiding with his mother and sister during mass killings; working with his mother and sister at a munitions factory; hiding with his mother and sister in bunkers after liquidation of the ghetto was announced on August 16, 1943; constant fear of discovery; escaping to the forest in November 1943; learning his mother and sister were deported; bombing trains and attacking German forces with partisans; and liberation by Soviet troops in the summer of 1944. Mr. M. describes enlisting in the Soviet army; military training and service; attending officers' school; working as an instructor; his joy at learning in 1945 that his mother and sister had survived; returning to Poland in December 1946 after a difficult repatriation process; obtaining an illegal visa in Łódź; traveling to Vienna; and reunion with his mother and sister in Nuremberg in March 1947. He emphasizes the importance of never giving up and fighting against all odds.

June 01, 2002

Jay M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-430). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Jay M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-430). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)