Abram Z. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Abram Z., who was born in Vilna, Poland in 1924. He recalls the flourishing Jewish culture; his father's Bund activities; the outbreak of war in 1939; his parents sending him to Pinsk; meeting Bund leaders including Victor Erlich; returning to Vilna; Soviet occupation; his father's arrest (he never saw him again); a pogrom when Lithuania became independent; German invasion in June 1941; hiding when Lithuanians began killing Jews; going to a forced labor camp outside of Vilna to avoid mass killings; bringing his mother there; returning to the Vilna ghetto; organization of schools, social services, and cultural events; becoming head of a youth organization; establishing a resistance group; smuggling in weapons; their decision not to fight in 1943, fearing reprisals against their families; his farewell to his mother; escaping through the sewers; hiding in a forest; joining Soviet and Lithuanian partisans; sabotage; execution of German POWs; destroying a Polish village of collaborators; fighting with the Soviet Army to liberate Vilna; being discharged from the Soviet Army with help from Jewish officers; moving to ?o?dz?; marriage in Paris; and emigrating to Australia in 1948. Mr. Z. discusses many incidents of Jewish resistance; having a better understanding of Jacob Gens, head of the Judenrat, as he became older; and conflicts between the Judenrat and the resistance.
Extent and Medium
4 videocassettes (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
- Z., Abram, -- 1924-
- Gens, Jacob, -- 1903-1943.
- Erlich, Victor, -- 1914-
Corporate Bodies
- Allgemeyner Idisher arbayṭerbund in Liṭa, Poylen un Rusland.
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Partisans.
- Resistance.
- Youth movements.
- Hiding.
- Soviet occupation.
- Escapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Soviet.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
Places
- Łódź (Poland)
- Pinsk (Belarus)
- Vilna (Poland)
- Poland.
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Paris (France)
- Vilna ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat