Iakov N. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Iakov N., who was born in Minsk, Soviet Union in 1925. He recalls his parents laboring in factories; hunger until 1938; speaking Yiddish at home; German bombing in June 1941; fleeing and returning to Minsk twice; ghettoization; mass shootings in which relatives were killed (one cousin survived by crawling out of a mass grave); forced labor; building hiding places to use during mass shootings; arrival of German Jews; escaping in summer 1943 with help from the underground; joining the partisans in the forest; Hersh Smolar directing them to another unit; learning his parents, sister, and many other relatives were killed in the ghetto's liquidation; serving in Shalom Zorin's partisan unit 106 in many different locations; hostile actions by Germans and by AK units resulting in deaths of their members; protecting some 600 people in the "family camp"; a huge German offensive in July; having to fight and move often; Zorin's masterful strategy which saved many lives; meeting Soviet troops; returning to Minsk; enlisting in the Soviet military to take revenge; attending technical school; marriage in 1950; his daughter's birth; and her emigration to Israel. Mr. N. shows photographs.

6 videocassettes