Leon P. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Leon P., who was born in Pruzhany, Russia (ceded to Poland in 1919, presently Belarus) in 1914. He recalls he was a child music prodigy; traveling to Minsk seeking music instruction; living in Warsaw to study piano; returning home in 1924; his older sister's emigration to the United States in 1933; attending a music conservatory in Warsaw; his father's death in 1938; nomination for the international Chopin competition; increasing antisemitism; performing to support his mother and younger sister; German invasion; fleeing to Vilnius; futile attempts to bring his mother and sister there; obtaining a Japanese transit visa; traveling to Moscow in January 1941, then to Vladivostok and Tsuruga-shi, Japan with assistance from HIAS; living in Ko?be-shi; performing concerts for diplomats in Tokyo; obtaining a visa to Canada; traveling to Shanghai; playing with a symphony orchestra; traveling to Sydney via Surinam; arriving in Vancouver in February 1942 via San Francisco; and emigrating to the United States to join his sister in October 1943. Mr. P. discusses his academic and music career; learning his mother and younger sister had perished at Auschwitz; many people who helped him; and the importance of his musical ability.

2 videocassettes