Actually, I looked this up last for another reason last night. Post cold war and after the break up of the Soviet Union in 1993, the total death toll in Russia during WW II is calculated to be 26,600,000 including civillians and military. Stalin allegedly had 20 million of his own citizens murdered prior to the Russo-German Pact, during the war, and afterwards. He had many of his soldiers executed and/or shipped to Siberia after serving time in Nazi prison camps, claiming they were not to surrender and that they had shamed their country and were better off dead. Basically, it was the same thought process as Hitler's. I don't think we'll ever get the true number and the specific responsibility of all the Russian murders. Suffice it to say, they lost more than any other country in that war.
I was born in 1958. It's hard to imagine that this horrific time in history took place within a decade of my birth. So far I have lived in a time of peace here in America. Lately, I've been nervous about our future. God bless us all.
Let the man speak! Stop interrupting him!! Not only disrespectful but keeps breaking up the flow of the interview and the experience he's trying to share.
I'm only 20 minutes into this, but after the first 30 seconds, I know how the interview is going to be. His demeanor reminds me of my late grandmother when stupid people proved their ignorance by asking her dumb questions. "Was there a German presence in Poland when Germany invaded Poland?" The spelling questions would have ticked her off as well. She likely would have told the interviewer to get a dictionary and to take a history course. (She completed the New York Times crossword puzzle everyday, with a pen.) This nice gentleman being subjected to a Gestapo interrogation decades after the war is too much. Oh my goodness!
Lol I was wondering if it was just me or if the interviewer is annoying and cold as I feel she is. I wish she would just let this nice man tell his story. It literally sounds like he is on trial for something. Smh...
Glad he lived. Alot of people give jews a hard time for not fighting, but they were a people without a country. Much different jews during the war in the 1960s in Israel. My biggest thing is the communist sympathy they tend to have. Hopefully everyone rejects it, especially living in America.
I think that she's intimidated by him. It's no excuse for her "interrogative style", but these people receive little to no training. 5 to 10 hours...She's out of her league. Interviews require excellent listening skills, not just going through a check list of questions.
@TrueCrimeSurvivors I agree on the "listening skills", they're probably thinking of the next question to ask. I take in count though, every one of us has our own personalities, and I don't believe she's being rude.
He was 24yrs old when Germany invaded. Sad that he and apparently most of the jews he knew refused to fight to repel the invasion (he said everyone was called to defend the city and build barricades but they ran east) because they didn't want to risk harm to themselves. Again at the time of the Warsaw uprising he did nothing but watch a friend shoot at the Germans, then he ran back to safety when his friend was killed never once firing a shot. He mentions getting married and that his wife got him papers to live as a Pole but he didn't like it so her returned to the ghetto. He them mentions about his wife bribing guards and sending him money in a camp which would have been at great risk to herself. Sad he never seems to mention he ever cared where she was or that he thought of her at all. Next thing he talks about setting his future wife up in a nice apartment with her family in a DP camp but he never says what happened with his first wife. Sad to so totally disregard someone who saved your life at such tremendous risk to herself.
Wow - judgmental much? Who are you to make such statements? You such a stellar human being? Have you been subject to such horrific circumstances to know exactly how you would respond?
When you have been though all this, you treat everything in a matter of a fact way. The bottom line was that he like all others had to survive. You are no damn use to anyone dead.
And where exactly do you think he was going to go? There was nowhere for him to go!! You don’t know what you would do in those circumstances! Lotta people did a lot of horrible things in most circumstances because they wanted to survive looking at them you would say how can you do that well, I don’t know what I would do in those types of circumstances and neither do you so you can’t judge him
yeah i dont like how she talks to him..like hes a criminal...you can tell hes getting irritated with her questions too...quit interrogating him...hope she aint doing other survivors stories..replace her
Are you calling him a liar? You weren’t there so why don’t you shut your mouth. Lots of things have happened in history that are unbelievable but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t true. What is true is that you are the type of person who just talks out of your ass. You should try reading a book and learning before you open your mouth and make yourself look like a fool. Seems it’s too late though.
She is having him spell the words because this is now an historical account. In the future people may not know exaclty what places he is referring to. Having people spell the names of people and places is standard procedure for these interviews.
