Testimony of Shlomo Laist, born in 1933 in Żółkiewka, Poland, regarding his experiences in Żółkiewka, escape to the Soviet Union, deportation to Siberia, evacuation to Tashkent and to Yangi Yul.

Testimony of Shlomo Laist, born in 1933 in Żółkiewka, Poland, regarding his experiences in Żółkiewka, escape to the Soviet Union, deportation to Siberia, evacuation to Tashkent and to Yangi Yul. Childhood in Żółkiewka in a traditional family; his father was` a tailor, owner of a sewing shop; the family spoke Yiddish amongst themselves; Jewish refugees from Germany in the town, from 1938; air-raids; German occupation in September 1939; rounding up of the Jewish men near the church, followed up by their release; departure of the German army and the entry of the Red Army in the same month; leaving home, and escape towards the Soviet Union, moving with the retreating Red Army in October 1939; crossing the Bog River; signing a request to return to Poland in May 1940; deportation to the Siberia region by freight train and ship; families camp; establishment of a sewing shop in the camp; strike of the deportees; studies at a Russian school; liberation from the camp following the Sikorsky Agreement; transfer by river raft and by train to Tashkent and Yangi Yul; help from the Jewish community; end of the war; preparation of forged papers in October 1945; return to Lublin, Poland; joining the 'Hanoar Hatzioni' movement; pogrom in Kielce; smuggling across the border into Germany with the Bericha organization; the Tarbut Jewish school in the Herzog DP camp in Hessisch Lichtenau; aliya to Israel in September 1948.