Leon F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Leon F., who was born in Berez?h?any, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (now Ukraine) in 1908. Mr. F. recalls hiding with his family when the town was burned in World War I; antisemitic harassment; attending yeshiva in Stanis?awo?w; membership in Hashomer Hatzair; attending medical school in Prague and theological school in Frankfurt; working as a gynecologist in Warsaw; his father's death in 1938; German invasion; draft into the Polish military; finding his unit had been destroyed in Min?sk Mazowiecki; escaping to the Soviet occupied zone; imprisonment as a spy; draft into the Soviet military; assignment to front lines in Finland in 1941; returning to Soviet territory; organizing surgical units; German attack in 1941; participating in Yom Kippur services with Jews near Kineshma; joining Armia Ludowa; liberating Polish cities, then Berlin; entering Hitler's chancellory; returning to Poland; helping to collect Jewish children from Catholic institutions in the ?o?dz? area; discharge; leaving Poland due to antisemitism; working in Schlactensee and other displaced persons camps organized by UNRRA in Berlin; marriage to a Jewish nurse he had met during the war; emigrating to the United States in 1948; and working as a gynecologist. Dr. F. discusses episodes during the war and after; his identity with his family's rabbinical heritage; his mother's difficult life; and his interest in Jewish rescue by non-Jews. He shows artifacts.
Extent and Medium
2 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
- F., Leon, -- 1908-
Corporate Bodies
- Poland. -- Armia Ludowa.
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- Kineshma (Russia)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
- Schlachtensee (Displaced persons camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Refugee camps.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Soviet.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Soviet.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Finland.
- Mińsk Mazowiecki (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Stanisławów (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Berez︠h︡any (Ukraine)
- Stanislav (Ukraine)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Austria.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat