Murray B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Murray B., who was born in Vselub, Byelorussian in 1912. He recalls his large family; attending Yeshiva (his parents wanted him to become a rabbi); the June 1941 German invasion; escape (he never saw his family again) to Nowogro?dek, then a nearby village, then the woods; hearing the shooting of Jews in a mass killing; hiding alone in the forest from December 1941 to March 1942; aid received from farmers; thinking he was the last remaining Jew; smuggling himself into the Nowogro?dek ghetto on a farmer's advice; round-ups; mass killings; and forced labor. Mr. B. describes escaping with others to the forests; joining Tuviah Bielski's Jewish partisans; two years of sabotage and battles with Germans; difficulties obtaining supplies, caring for children, and with wild animals; joining Soviet forces in 1944; moving to Nowogro?dek, then Lublin; contacts with the Joint and organizers of the illegal Palestine immigration; travel to Italy en route to Palestine; marrying a woman he had met in the partisans; and emigration to join his brother in Springfield, Massachusetts. He discusses adjustment difficulties; building a new family; postwar Polish pogroms; and his quest for an answer to why these events occurred, particularly the murder of more than one million children.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette (3/4" u-matic)
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., Murray, -- 1912-
- Bielski, Tuvia.
Subjects
- Partisans.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Belarus -- Navahrudak.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Moral and ethical aspects.
- Sabotage.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belarus.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Revenge.
Places
- Poland.
- Navahrudak (Belarus)
- Italy.
- Lublin (Poland)
- Vseli︠u︡b (Belarus)
- Nowogródek ghetto.
- Nowogródek (Poland)
- Novogrudok (Belarus)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat