Valentina S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Valentina S., a non-Jew, who was born in Brest-Litovsk, Russia (presently Brest, Belarus) in 1912. She recounts her family's evacuation to Chuhuïv, then Z︠H︡ytomyr, in 1914; her father's death resulting from Russian army service in World War I; pleasant childhood memories; her grandmother hiding Jewish neighbors during pogroms after the revolution; working in an orphanage during the famine in 1933; marriage in 1934; the arrest of Jewish doctors during purges in 1936-1937; German invasion in June 1941; her husband's military draft (he was killed during the 1941 offensive); German occupation; establishing an orphanage with assistance from other teachers left in town; accepting Jewish children; giving them Russian names; assisting them to remember their new names and identities; efforts to save children during a German raid after denouncement by an orphanage worker; adopting a Jewish girl she rescued; and "sharing" her after relatives reclaimed her. Mrs. S. discusses considering her rescue efforts non-heroic, simply what should be done; continuing contact with "her children;" and she shows photographs of them.

2 videocassettes