Peter M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Peter M., who was born in Cherkasy, Ukraine in 1917. He recalls family observances of Jewish holidays; attending Jewish school; working with his father as a carpenter after 1933; enlisting in the Soviet army in 1939; two years of communications training in Russia; military actions in Belarus in 1941; defending Z︠H︡lobin for a month; retreating; fleeing with a friend; returning home in October; learning his parents were evacuated and his brother drafted (he never saw them again) from a Ukrainian neighbor who provided food and helped him escape; living in Novoye Zhittya, posing as a Ukrainian violin player; observing a Jewish woman raving about her children being killed in a mass shooting nearby; farm work for three months; fleeing to Orzhitsa; repairing a violin and building coffins; being warned by an official of his imminent arrest; hiding in villages including Chaykovshchina and Orzhitsa; hiding with a teacher; writing and distributing anti-German leaflets; joining the Soviet army in Chernobay; marriage after the war; learning all his relatives were killed; and the births of a son and daughter. He notes assistance from many non-Jews while hiding, and his daughter's emigration to Israel.
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
- M., Peter, -- 1917-
Subjects
- Hiding.
- Resistance.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Ukraine.
- Postwar experiences.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Soviet.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Orzhitsa (Ukraine)
- Novoye Zhittya (Ukraine)
- Z︠H︡lobin (Belarus)
- Chernobay (Ukraine)
- Chaykovshchina (Ukraine)
- Cherkasy (Ukraine)
- Ukraine.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat