Mikhail V. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Mikhail V., who was born in Berdychiv, Ukraine in 1928, one of six children. He describes celebrating Jewish holidays; German invasion; ghettoization; his mother hiding him during a round-up; escaping from German soldiers who found him; running to a non-Jewish neighbor who hid him; learning his father had survived the mass killing (his mother and siblings were shot); living with skilled Jewish workers; hiding in the midst of a mass shooting; hearing the screams and shooting (his father was killed); escaping from a policeman who discovered him; hiding in a neighboring village; a stranger who took him to a woman in Terekhova; living with her (she knew he was Jewish); begging for food in surrounding villages; escaping from Ukrainian policemen who would have surrendered him for money; working for a farmer; and staying on a collective farm with prisoners of war until liberation. Mr. V. discusses choosing not to emigrate in order to remain close to family graves; never discussing his experiences because they are too painful; and Ukrainians who killed Jews and others who saved them. He shows mass killing sites in Berdychiv and a memorial erected by the surviving Jews.

2 videocassettes