Eichmann Trial -- Sessions 27 and 28 -- Testimonies of F. Masia, M. Dworzecki, A. Kovner, A. Peretz

Seventeen-year-old Frieda Masia resided in Sosnowiec, Poland at the outbreak of WWII. She began working in a Jewish hospital as a nurse after the Nazis occupied Sosnowiec. Masia saw Jews starved, beaten, burned alive, and executed, regardless of age. She belonged to the Jewish underground, and was a leader in the Zionist youth movement. After a particularly bad 'action' against the Jews, Mordechai Znielewicz of Warsaw and Eliezer Geller, two leaders of the Jewish underground met with Masia, and informed her about the Nazi extermination efforts. She organized Jewish resistance, and also managed to smuggle out several boys and girls to Germany dressed as Aryan workers. In September 1942, Masia was sent to Auschwitz by the Jewish underground to establish connections with the underground movement at Auschwitz. She returned to Sosnowiec unsuccessful. Masia escaped to Slovakia in 1943, and was eventually saved after a long period of wandering. In 1961, Masi lived in Israel.

Emil Knebel was a cinematographer known for Andante (2010), Adam (1973), and Wild Is My Love (1963). He was one of the cameramen who recorded daily coverage of the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem (produced by Capital Cities Broadcasting Corp and later held academic positions in Israel and New York teaching filmmaking at universities. Refer to CV in file.

Dr. Aharon Peretz, a lived and practiced gynecology in Kovno, Lithuania when the German-Soviet war began. In August 1941, Peretz was forced into the Kovno Ghetto, where he remained 1944, when he was transferred to the Stutthof concentration camp. For the next three years, Peretz experienced many atrocities, all of which he called a 'pogrom.' Jews were beaten, starved, and killed; Peretz treated many women who had been sexually assaulted by SS officers. In 1942, an order was given banning pregnancies and births. Peretz was forced to conduct many abortive surgeries on Jewish women, as well as assist in secret deliveries. The SS conducted the 'children action' in 1944; the officers took most of the children from the Kovno Ghetto, and deported them to an undisclosed location. In an attempt to save his family, Peretz hid his wife and child in a cellar, and they successfully avoided the 'children action'. Peretz tried this tactic again in 1944, but this time he did not prevail. The SS found his hiding place, and transported Peretz and his family to the Stutthof concentration camp. In 1961, Peretz lived in Israel, and worked at the Rambam Hospital where he was head of the Gynecology Department.

Dr. Meir Mark Dworzecki, medical doctor, and lecturer at Bar-Ilan University in Israel fought in the Polish army in the war against Germany in 1939. He was taken prisoner, but later escaped to Vilna, Lithuania. In the beginning months of Nazi occupation, the SS officers distributed 'life' certificates to the Vilna Jews; those who did not have certificates were captured and deported. Dworzecki was given a 'family' certificate that allowed him to register himself, a spouse, and two children. He was forced to choose between his wife and his mother, as he could not acquire a separate certificate for his parents. In 1941, Nazis staged an 'action' against the Jews, forcing Dworzecki and others into the Vilna Ghetto. Those who resisted were taken to Ponary and killed. Once in the ghetto, the Jews were required to register their families. At the time, Dworzecki did not have any children; however, his certificate allotted the registration of two children. He decided to register his younger sister as his child. On his way to registration, Dworzecki saw an orphaned boy running through the streets, asking: "Who wants to be my father?" Dworzecki told the boy he would register him as his son; therefore, all four people-Dworzecki, his wife, his younger sister, and the orphan boy walked as a family to selection. In September 1943, Dworzecki was transported to concentration camps in Estonia. Over the next months, Dworzecki went through five Estonian concentrations camps-Narva, Kureme 1, Kureme 2, Goldfilz, and Lagedi. In the next year, Dworzecki's group was transported from Lagedi to Stutthof concentration camp, Natzweiler camp, a camp for torture and pseudo-scientific medical experiments, and finally to Dachau. In March 1945, Dworzecki's group decided to escape; as the SS men marched the Jews toward Baden-Baden Lake to drown them, the Jews scattered into the forest, and those who lived, remained in the forest until liberation. The French army liberated Dworzecki, and placed him in a hospital, as he only weighed 39 kilograms. Soon thereafter, Dworzecki traveled to Paris to meet with other Holocaust survivors. In 1961, Dworzecki lived, and worked as a medical doctor at Kupat Holim in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Born in Sebastopol, Russia, in 1918, he was educated in the Hebrew high school in Vilna and in the school of the arts. At a very young age he became a trainee in the "Hashomer Hatzair" Youth Movement. In 1940-41 when Vilna wast the capital of the Soviet Republic of Lithuania, Kovner was a member of the undergorund organization. After the German occupation in June 1941, Kovner hid with a few friends temporarily in a Dominican convent in the city's suburb. After he returned to the ghetto and became aware of the killing of thousands of Jews, Kovner expressed the idea of revolt and began to build a Jewish force to fight against the Nazis. On the night of December 31, 1941, Kovner read before a meeting of delegates of all Jewsih Youth Movements the following public announcement: "Hitler is plotting to destroy all European Jews. Lithuanian Jews will be the first in line. Let us not be led like sheep to the slaughterhouse. It is right, we are weak and without defense, but the only answer to the enemy is resistance!" It was the first time that Jews were called to defend themselves with arms. On January 21, 1942, the "United Organization of Partisans" was founded in Vilnus. This organization was comprised of memebers of the various youth movements in the Vilna Ghetto. Kovner was a leading member, and after the Chief commander was caught in July 1943, he became the head of the organization. In the days of the last deportation from the Ghetto to the extermination camps, Kovner supervised the escape of the organization fighters to the woods. In Rodniky woods he commanded the Jewish Unit composed of Ghetto fighters and the "Nakam" squadron from the Jewish camp. After the liberation, Kovner remained active in the "Bricha" movement. In 1945 he called on members of the "Eretz Israel Brigade" to support and perform the activities of the "Nakam" (revenge) on the responsible murderers of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. He was arrested and deported to Israel. In 1946 he joined his wife and partner in underground activities, Vitka Kampner, along with other partisans at kibbutz "Ein Hahoresh." He was active during Israel's Independence War in the famous "Givati" brigade. At the end of the war Kovner dedicated most of his time to writing both prose and poetry. Kovner died in 1987.