Dagan B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Dagan B., who was born in Lakhva, Poland (presently Belarus) in 1927, the youngest of seven children. He recounts attending a Yavneh school; his brother's and sister's marriages and births of their children; participating in a Zionist youth group; Soviet occupation; his brother's military draft; German invasion; Dov Lopatin (head of the Judenrat) negotiating with the Germans; anti-Jewish restrictions; daily forced labor; ghettoization; slave labor in a steel mill; an underground group led by their neighbor, Itshak Rokhchin; the ghetto revolt after hearing they would all be killed; a failed attempt to save his mother from a burning building; his sister-in-law's murder; escaping; traveling east with other escapees; hiding briefly with partisans; assistance from non-Jewish villagers; joining a partisan group; blowing up trains and bridges; considering suicide when surrounded by Germans; orders to go to Z︠H︡lobin; assignment to kill Germans hiding in the forests; demobilization in 1944 due to his young age; being sent to Białystok; traveling to Baranavichy, then with a friend to Lakhva; finding a letter from his brother; draft into the Soviet military; visiting relatives in Kursk in 1949; learning his brother was in Israel; arrest; transfer to a labor camp; release one year later; returning to Kursk; marriage; the births of three children; and emigration to Israel in 1959. Mr. B. discusses the kindness, and assistance from Belorussians, and continuing nightmares due to his experiences.
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
- B., Dagan, -- 1927-
- Rokhchin, Itshak.
- Lopatin, Dov.
Subjects
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jews -- Belarus -- Lakhva.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Postwar effects.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belarus.
- Escapes.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Draft -- Soviet Union.
- Suicide.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- Zionists.
- Nightmares.
- Forced labor -- Soviet Union -- History -- 20th century.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Soviet.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Partisans.
- Soviet occupation.
- Child survivors.
Places
- Poland.
- Lakhva (Belarus)
- Baranavichy (Belarus)
- Kursk (Russia)
- Z︠H︡lobin (Belarus)
- Białystok (Poland)
- Lakhva ghetto.
- Lakhva (Belarus) -- History -- Lakhva Ghetto Uprising, 1942.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat