Hanan L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Hanan L., who was born in Traby, Poland (presently Belarus) in 1924. He recalls a happy childhood; Soviet occupation in 1939; German invasion in 1941; forced relocation to Iu?e; forced labor; ghettoization; a selection for a mass shooting (he and his family were chosen for work); his father obtaining shepherds clothing for him and then he and a friend smuggling themselves to Nikolaev to a non-Jew friendly to Jews; hiding with him; stealing a gun to join the partisans; returning for their families; learning they had been deported (none survived); returning to the partisans, wanting revenge; growth of the unit (it became the Stalin brigade); building bunkers in the forest; destroying rail and communications lines; battles with Germans and their collaborators; evacuation to Moscow, then Minsk after he was wounded; not returning from his leave; traveling to Lublin; joining a group emigrating to Palestine; their illegal trip to Italy; boarding a ship; interdiction by the British; and a hunger strike resulting in their landing in Palestine. Mr. L. discusses his education and career; marriage; the births of two children; involvement in a organization of former partisans; medals awarded by the Soviet Union; traveling in a delegation of partisans to the Soviet Union in 1994; visiting his former home; lecturing to young people there; erecting a monument on the mass grave; and emigration to the United States three years ago. He shows photographs and reads his poetry.

3 videocassettes