Kopel K. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Kopel K., who was born in Lakhva, Poland (presently Belarus) in 1926, the third of four children. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; briefly living in Sinkevichy; returning to Lakhva in 1930; his father's successful businesses in Chalanyets where they spent their summers; attending Hebrew school; joining Betar and other youth groups; antisemitic vandalism of their home; Soviet occupation in September 1939; attending a Soviet school; confiscation of the family businesses; his father's arrest and deportation in 1940; German occupation in July 1941; formation of a Judenrat (one brother became a secretary) and police (his other brother was a member); learning of mass killings in nearby towns from escapees; forced labor; frequent beatings; ghettoization in 1942; assignments repairing train tracks in Luninets; his brother organizing a group to smuggle food; learning the ghetto would be liquidated; warning Yitzhak Rochzyn, an underground leader, who obtained permission from Dov Lopatin, head of the Jundenrat, to revolt; escaping during the uprising; hiding, then joining other escapees; walking to Sinkevichy to seek partisans; learning one brother had been killed by partisans; assistance from many non-Jews who had known his father; traveling to Baranovichy then Chalanyets; working in his father's former mills; his father's former employees treating him well; fleeing a German offensive with six others in March 1943; being wounded (three of his group were killed); hiding in the forest; witnessing Germans burning homes and barns in Chalanyets and other villages, many with residents inside; and his father's childhood friend caring for him.

8 videocassettes