Israel Weiner letter concerning the fate of the Weiner family in Vinnitsa, USSR

Moishe Weiner was born in a shtetl near Vinnytsya, Ukraine where there were about 45,000 Jews before the war. The family consisted of three brothers and two sisters, another brother having died around the time Moishe was born. Although the family was poor, they valued education as a way out of poverty. Moishe attended the Ukrainian school, the path to study for the professions, instead of the Jewish school. After the German invasion his older sister urged the family to get away, but they had no money. Because his ister was engaged to an Army officer, she was given one of the train passes issued for her fiancé’s family. Moishe’s parents threw him on the train with his sister, though he had no pass; thus saving his life. They never made it to their destination because the Germans attacked the train. They managed to escape, and made their way to Orsk in the Urals. He worked at different jobs until he was called into the army in 1945 after the war.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Israel (Ezia) Weiner, brother of Moshe Weiner, wrote the original letter in 1944. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Dept. received the photocopy of the letter in early 1992 and passed it on to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives in July 1992.