Ralph F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-110) [videorecording] / interviewed by Dori Laub and Laurel Vlock, February 23, 1980.

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

1 videorecording (2 hr., 3 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Friedman, Ralph. Interview 33839. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Ralph F., who was born in Kabalnik, a small town 80 km. east of Vilna, Poland. Mr. F. tells of his Orthodox childhood and his education in both a cheder and a Polish primary school; the rapid increase of antisemitism; the egalitarianism of the Russian occupation; disappearances in the middle of the night; the German occupation; and the precautions which he took to avoid being rounded up and deported. He describes the acts of extreme barbarity and cruelty which he witnessed; antisemitic legislation; his narrow escape from the liquidation which took place on Yom Kippur, 1942; and hiding, with his mother, in a grain storage shed for five months. He recalls joining the partisans and recounts a number of interesting experiences which illustrate his precocity; his reunion with his parents in 1943; and his continued activities with the partisans until 1945, when he was drafted into the Russian army. He also speaks of his injury in a battle with a group of retreating Germans and his postwar move to Berlin with his parents.

June 01, 2002

Ralph F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-110). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Ralph F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-110). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)