Reuven L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Reuven L., who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1927. He describes his father's prominence as a lawyer and his mother's as a gynecologist; his father's assistance to Jewish refugees from Germany and Poland; Soviet occupation; his father's arrest as a capitalist; Lithuanians killing Jews after Germany invaded the Soviet Union prior to entering Kaunas; ghettoization; forced labor at the airport, hunger, and killings; his parents arranging their escape with assistance from a priest; hiding in a monastery, then, using false papers, on a farm and with a Lithuanian woman; fleeing with assistance from non-Jews to S?iauliai; working on a farm in Linkuva, posing as a non-Jew; and liberation by Soviet troops. Mr. L. describes returning to Kaunas; reunion with his parents, who had hidden in different places; their escape via Baranavichy, ?o?dz?, and Katowice to Prague; traveling to Paris with assistance from a Jewish organization; emigration, with his parents, to Palestine in 1946; marriage; and emigrating with his family to the United States in 1956. He notes the contrast of rabid antisemitism in Lithuania in 1941 to Lithuanians who saved him at risk to themselves.
Extent and Medium
4 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. This testimony may not be altered without prior written consent of the donor.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- L., Reuven, -- 1927-
Subjects
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Soviet occupation.
- Mass killings.
- False papers.
- Jewish ghettos -- Escapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Child survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Kaunas.
- Forced labor.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Monasteries.
Places
- Paris (France)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Katowice (Poland)
- Kovno ghetto.
- Palestine.
- S̆iauliai (Lithuania)
- Kaunas (Lithuania)
- Baranavichy (Belarus)
- Linkuva (Lithuania)
- Lithuania.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat