"Gleams of Memory"

Consists of one memoir, 191 pages, entitled "Gleams of Memory," by Michael Treister, originally of Vitebsk in Byelorussia. In the memoir, he describes pre-war life, the bombing during the 1941 German invasion, and the establishment of the Minsk ghetto. He was in the ghetto from 1941-1943; in July 1943 the ghetto in Minsk transitioned into a concentration camp on Shirokaya street, where prisoners were incrementally killed with mobile gas vans. After a month, Treister was able to leave the camp due to a paperwork technicality and joined a partisan unit, acting as a guide to help people escape the ghetto. His partisan unit joined the Red Army in July 1944. The memoir also describes Mr. Treister's visit to the KGB in 1968 and relates the story of the Sokolenko family's experiences under communism. Includes transcriptions of original documents and copies of personal photographs. The memoir is split between the original Russian memoir and an English-language translation of the same, which was translated by Mr. Treister's daughter, Victoria Treister.