Chaim G. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3576) [videorecording], October 29 and November 9, 1993.

Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1993.

2 videorecordings (5 hr., 54 min.) : col.

Russian

This testimony is in Russian.

Videotape testimony of Chaim G., who was born in Lithuania in 1926, one of two sons. He recalls his family's affluence; attending Hebrew school from age three; speaking Yiddish at home; his older brother's emigration to the United States in 1936; antisemitic violence in 1938; his bar mitzvah at his grandmother's house; participating in Hashomer Hatzair; Soviet occupation; confiscation of their home; visiting Kaunas; German invasion (his mother was in Panevėžys); mass killings of Jews by Lithuanians; arrest with his father; their release (the others were all shot); ghettoization; falsifying his birth date to be older so he could work; slave labor at the airport to obtain work papers; a mass killing in October 1941; killing of children and the elderly; deportation with his father to Landsberg; slave labor, starvation and lice infestation; working with his father until he died; a severe beating for taking extra potatoes; others hiding him while he recovered; transfer to Dachau; escaping with others from an evacuation march; receiving food from United States troops; traveling to Munich; returning to Kaunas seeking relatives; traveling to Vilnius, then to Panevėžys; learning his family had all been killed there; finding human remains at a mass grave; erecting a monument; and emigration to Israel. Mr. G. discusses reopening “wounds” when speaking with camp and ghetto survivors; many of the killers living with impunity; and conveying his story so younger generations will know the truth. He shows photographs and documents.

June 01, 2002

Chaim G. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3576). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Chaim G. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3576). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)