Itzhak D. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Itzhak D., who was born in Vilna, Russia (presently Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1916, one of five children. He recounts participating in Hashomer Hatzair with Abba Kovner; Soviet occupation; working with the writer Szmerke Kaczerginski; German invasion; anti-Jewish violence; ghettoization; hiding during round-ups; forced labor in a military fuel depot outside the ghetto; selling stolen fuel to purchase food; escaping; hiding with a German guard who had befriended him in the fuel depot; sneaking back into the ghetto; hiding with his family during the liquidation; capture; transfer to a Gestapo prison; slave labor clearing trees with his father; observing mass graves; being forced to disinter corpses in Ponary for burning; the trauma of finding the bodies of his mother, sister, and friend; a group effort to build a tunnel; escaping through the tunnel; assistance from local villagers; and joining a Soviet partisan group.
Extent and Medium
3 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
- Kovner, Abba, -- 1918-1987.
- Kaczerginski, Szmerke, -- 1908-1954.
- D., Itzhak, -- 1916-
Corporate Bodies
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
Subjects
- Mass killings.
- Partisans.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Soviet occupation.
- Fathers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Paneriai Massacres, Paneriai, Lithuania, 1941-1944.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
- Forced labor.
- Escapes.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Vilna ghetto.
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Russia.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat