Yehoshua L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Yehoshua L., who was born in approximately 1923 and raised in Lakhva, Poland (presently Belarus), one of five children. He recalls attending a local Yavneh school, then yeshiva in Luninets; his father's death in 1938; Soviet occupation in 1939; his sister's evacuation east during the German invasion in June 1941; his futile attempt to flee east; slave labor for Organisation Todt; ghettoization in spring 1942; solidarity promoted by the Judenrat led by Dov Lopatin; bringing food to Jews in a Hungarian slave labor battalion when they passed through; non-Jews informing them mass graves were being prepared for the town, leading to an organized uprising on September 2, 1942, led by Lopatin and Itshak Rokhchin; the mass escape during which many were killed; gathering in the forest with a group of about 120, including one of his brothers; futile attempts to join partisans (his brother was accepted); hiding in a forest near Babrui?sk; last seeing his brother in 1943; liberation in 1944; joining the Soviet army; liberating Bia?ystok; transfer to Hrodna; living in a displaced persons camp in Germany; and emigration to Israel. Mr. L. discusses Jews who were killed in the forests by non-Jewish partisans and testifying at a war crimes trial.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- Rokhchin, Itshak.
- L., Yehoshua, -- 1923?-
- Lopatin, Dov.
Corporate Bodies
- Organisation Todt (Germany)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Soviet.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belarus.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Belarus -- Lakhva.
- Jewish councils.
- Escapes.
- Refugee camps.
- War crime trials.
- Mutual aid.
- Soviet occupation.
- Partisans.
- Forests.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
Places
- Lakhva (Belarus)
- Hrodna (Belarus)
- BiaĹystok (Poland)
- Luninets (Belarus)
- BabruiĚsk (Belarus)
- Lakhva (Belarus) -- History -- Lakhva Ghetto Uprising, 1942.
- Germany.
- Lakhva ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat