Peter L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Peter L., who was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1923 to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. He recalls his father's three-year imprisonment as a Trotskyite beginning in 1937; German occupation in fall 1941; inability to evacuate due to injuries; his mother obtaining a Ukrainian passport for him; his father not allowing him, his mother, and brother to join the ghettoization in a tractor factory in December 1941; his father's escape on January 2, 1942; hiding him in their apartment; hiding his future wife and her mother for a month; his future wife bringing his father a passport; fleeing to Kirovohrad with his family; brief incarceration with his mother and brother in Novaya Vodolaga; returning to Kharkiv; liberation in February 1943; serving in the Soviet army; discharge in February 1946; expulsion from medical school following his father's arrest in 1951; marriage; exile in Kazakhstan; and returning to Kharkiv. Mr. L. discusses his reluctance to share his experiences even with close friends, fearing punishment as a collaborator since he lived in Nazi occupied territory; sharing his experiences with his son; his Jewish identity; the importance of luck and his passport to his survival; and his gratitude to and love for his wife.

2 videocassettes