Lisa Derman

Born in Poland, 1926

Lisa was the oldest of three children born to a religious Jewish family. Following the German occupation of her hometown in 1939, Lisa and her family moved to first to Augustow and then to Slonim (in Soviet-occupied eastern Poland). German troops captured Slonim in June 1941, during the invasion of the Soviet Union. In Slonim, the Germans established a ghetto which existed from 1941 to 1942. Lisa eventually escaped from Slonim, and went first to Grodno and then to Vilna, where she joined the resistance movement. She joined a partisan group, fighting the Germans from bases in the Naroch Forest. Soviet forces liberated the area in 1944.

Describes a group of partisans who resisted the Germans.

Rachel Mutterperl Goldfarb

Born 1930, Dokszyce, Poland

The Germans established a ghetto in Dokszyce in late 1941. Rachel hid during the liquidation of the ghetto in 1942, and she and her mother escaped to another ghetto. When the second ghetto was about to be liquidated, they escaped again. Rachel and her mother joined a band of partisans in the forest. She helped her mother to cook, and also cleaned weapons. Rachel and her mother tried to leave Europe when the war ended. They eventually arrived in the United States, in 1947.

Describes activities of the partisan band she joined.

Leo Bretholz

Born 1921, Vienna, Austria

After the Germans annexed Austria in 1938, Leo attempted to flee. He eventually reached Belgium. In 1940 he was deported to the St.-Cyprien camp in France but escaped. In 1942 Leo was smuggled into Switzerland but was arrested and sent back to France, this time to the Rivesaltes and Drancy camps. He and a friend escaped from a train deporting them to the Auschwitz killing center in Poland. Leo joined the French underground in 1943. He survived the war, and eventually emigrated to the United States in 1947.

Describes underground training and activities of resistance in France.

Chaja Kozlowski

Golda (Olga) Bancic

Franco Cesana