Peter L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Peter L., who was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1923 to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. He recalls his father's three-year imprisonment as a Trotskyite beginning in 1937; German occupation in fall 1941; inability to evacuate due to injuries; his mother obtaining a Ukrainian passport for him; his father not allowing him, his mother, and brother to join the ghettoization in a tractor factory in December 1941; his father's escape on January 2, 1942; hiding him in their apartment; hiding his future wife and her mother for a month; his future wife bringing his father a passport; fleeing to Kirovohrad with his family; brief incarceration with his mother and brother in Novaya Vodolaga; returning to Kharkiv; liberation in February 1943; serving in the Soviet army; discharge in February 1946; expulsion from medical school following his father's arrest in 1951; marriage; exile in Kazakhstan; and returning to Kharkiv. Mr. L. discusses his reluctance to share his experiences even with close friends, fearing punishment as a collaborator since he lived in Nazi occupied territory; sharing his experiences with his son; his Jewish identity; the importance of luck and his passport to his survival; and his gratitude to and love for his wife.
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
- L., Peter, -- 1923-
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- Draft -- Soviet Union.
- Mothers and sons.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Identification (Religion)
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Soviet.
- Mutual aid.
- Hiding.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- False papers.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Interfaith marriage.
- Brothers.
- Fathers and sons.
Places
- Kazakhstan.
- Novaya Vodolaga (Ukraine)
- Ukraine.
- Kharkiv (Ukraine)
- Kirovohrad (Ukraine)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat