Vladimir M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Vladimir M., who was born in Minsk, Belarus in 1933, the younger of two brothers. He recounts his father's participation in the Bolshevik movement; his family's move to Moscow in 1935; his brother spending the summer with grandparents in Minsk in 1937; his father's arrest, then his mother's arrest; placement in orphanages; his uncle bringing him to Minsk in December 1939; being coddled within his large, extended family, especially by his grandmother; attending summer camp in 1941; German invasion; a teacher returning him to Minsk; learning of mass shootings, including his uncle and other relatives; ghettoization; hiding during round-ups for mass shootings; hospitalization for typhus; he and his brother sneaking out of the ghetto; singing to German and Hungarian soldiers for extra food; bringing it to his grandparents; starvation, cold, and disease; more mass shootings, including many relatives; escaping with his brother and others; assistance from villagers; fleeing antisemitic partisans; joining Shalom Zorin's partisan family unit, then merging with the Bielski brigade; a German attack; frequently changing locations; partisan battles with Germans; executions of captured German soldiers; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Minsk; living in several orphanages; pervasive antisemitism; his mother and father returning in 1947; their divorce; living with his father in Ashmi︠a︡ny in summer 1948; being denied membership in the Komsomol due to his parents' records; being warned in 1951 his father's arrest was imminent; moving to Siberia with him to avoid arrest; attending school in Tomsk; military enlistment in 1955; emigration to Israel; and his father's death in 1967. Mr. M. discusses his large, extended family, all of whom were killed; life in orphanages, the ghetto, partisans, Siberia, and Israel; difficulty relating to parents he hardly knew; nightmares resulting from his experiences; and not talking about his experiences with anyone, including his family. He shows photographs and documents and sings many songs.

14 videocassettes