Shmuel S. and Dora R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-13) [videorecording] / interviewed by Laurel Vlock, January 8, 1980.

New Haven, Conn. : Holocaust Survivors Film Project, 1980.

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

English

Associated material: Dora and Salo R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-12), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Videotape testimony of Shmuel S., who was born in Czernowitz, Romania, in 1916 and his sister Dora R., who was born in 1926. Mr. S. relates pleasant aspects of his prewar life: a happy family, ease in being Jewish, work in a clothing factory. He describes the German re-occupation of Czernowitz; the forced march to Bershad;̓ forced labor in and near the Bershad ̓ghetto; and the cruel treatment which he suffered. He tells of fleeing to Balta with his sister and of their journey after the Russian takeover through the woods back to Bershad ̓to rejoin the rest of their family. Also recalled are his postwar return to Russian-occupied Czernowitz with surviving family members; their subsequent move to other towns in Romania; his conscription into the Russian army; service in the Irkutskaya Oblast from 1945 until 1967; his move to Israel in 1967 while Mrs. R. moved from Romania to the United States; and his emigration to the United States in 1974. Mrs. R.'s remarks consist primarily of a commentary on her brother's testimony, which she augments, translates (when he speaks Yiddish) and, at times, discredits. She emphasizes the permanent psychological effects of the brutal treatment to which he was subjected and gives expression to her despair and frustration at her inability to help him.

June 01, 2002

Shmuel S. and Dora R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-13). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Shmuel S. and Dora R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-13). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)