Menachem K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Menachem K., who was born in Berez︠h︡any, Poland (presently Ukraine) in 1925. He recounts his father's death when he was an infant; his mother's remarriage; the births of two half-sisters; attending cheder, then public school; anti-Jewish boycotts; Soviet occupation; German invasion; Ukrainians killing Jews; working and living in his stepfather's factory; ghettoization; obtaining false papers to leave the ghetto; arrest and incarceration in a Ukrainian prison; his stepfather securing his release; hiding during round-ups; building a bunker at a Polish friend's home in Mechishchev; the ghetto's liquidation; his father's suicide; receiving a flesh wound while escaping from a mass shooting; hearing the shooting from his hiding place; walking to Mechishchev; hiding in his friend's attic; learning his mother, sister, aunt, and grandmother had survived in a bunker; retrieving them; hiding in the bunker in Mechishchev, then moving to a forest bunker; returning to his Polish friend's house for the winter; their host's murder by Ukrainian nationalists; his wife continuing to care for them; returning to the forest bunker in the spring; obtaining food from nearby villages; encountering another group of Jews in hiding; liberation by Soviet troops; returning home; moving to Bytom; traveling to a kibbutz near Rome; illegal emigration by ship to Palestine; interdiction by the British; incarceration on Cyprus; and release in 1947. Mr. K. discusses bringing the daughters of his rescuers to the Yad Vashem ceremony honoring them as "Righteous among the Nations," and writing a book about his experiences.
Extent and Medium
6 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
- K., Menachem, -- 1925-
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Berzez︠h︡any.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Ukrainian.
- Suicide.
- Mothers and sons.
- Escapes.
- Brothers and sisters.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Soviet occupation.
- Hiding.
- False papers.
- Bunkers.
- Mass killings.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Forests.
Places
- Poland.
- Berez︠h︡any (Ukraine)
- Mechishchev (Ukraine)
- Bytom (Poland)
- Italy.
- Brzez︠h︡any ghetto.
- Palestine -- Emigration and immigration.
- Cyprus.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat