Abram Z. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1972) [videorecording] / interviewed by Dana L. Kline and Lawrence L. Langer, March 29, 1993.

New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library, 1993.

1 videorecording (4 hr., 1 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Abram Z., who was born in Vilna, Poland in 1924. He recalls the flourishing Jewish culture; his father's Bund activities; the outbreak of war in 1939; his parents sending him to Pinsk; meeting Bund leaders including Victor Erlich; returning to Vilna; Soviet occupation; his father's arrest (he never saw him again); a pogrom when Lithuania became independent; German invasion in June 1941; hiding when Lithuanians began killing Jews; going to a forced labor camp outside of Vilna to avoid mass killings; bringing his mother there; returning to the Vilna ghetto; organization of schools, social services, and cultural events; becoming head of a youth organization; establishing a resistance group; smuggling in weapons; their decision not to fight in 1943, fearing reprisals against their families; his farewell to his mother; escaping through the sewers; hiding in a forest; joining Soviet and Lithuanian partisans; sabotage; execution of German POWs; destroying a Polish village of collaborators; fighting with the Soviet Army to liberate Vilna; being discharged from the Soviet Army with help from Jewish officers; moving to Łódź; marriage in Paris; and emigrating to Australia in 1948. Mr. Z. discusses many incidents of Jewish resistance; having a better understanding of Jacob Gens, head of the Judenrat, as he became older; and conflicts between the Judenrat and the resistance.

June 01, 2002

Abram Z. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1972). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Abram Z. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1972). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)