Lazarz S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Lazarz S., who was born in Boryslaw, Poland in 1912. He recalls leaving school at age fourteen to help support his family; working as a barber in many cities and sending money home; returning to Boryslaw in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland; living there during the Soviet occupation; fleeing toward the Soviet Union when Germany invaded in 1941; joining partisan units in the forests; fighting the Germans for years; and hearing of deportation of Jews from his town, many to Auschwitz. He describes Ukrainian units sympathetic to the Nazis killing many Jews; seeing thousands of people killed; the difficulties of living in the woods; his vow to avenge the deaths of his family (approximately 162 killed); after the war, finding the man who had killed his parents; and emigration to the United States in 1969. Mr. S. discusses his reluctance to tell his story to his children, particularly that he himself killed others, although they know he was a partisan, and his anger that no one was really punished for the crimes of World War II.

2 videocassettes