Testimony of Jzhak Kleinerman Zutta, born in Brzesc, 1924, regarding his experiences in the Pruzana Ghetto, with the partisans and in camps

Testimony of Jzhak Kleinerman Zutta, born in Brzesc, 1924, regarding his experiences in the Pruzana Ghetto, with the partisans and in camps His father is a lumber merchant; death of witness' mother when he was 10 years old; family move to Pruzana; high school education; community life and activities in two Zionist movements. Entry of the Soviets and unification of all educational streams; penetration of socialist ideas among the Jews; entry of the Germans, 1941; deportation to a ghetto, 27 June 1941; confiscation of Jewish owned property; appointment of the heads of the Jewish community to the Judenrat and its responsibility for the organization of Jewish labor in the ghetto; witness' organizing with other young people to escape from the ghetto and join the partisans with weapons produced in the ghetto; in hiding in ditches which they had dug; deportation of the ghetto's residents to Auschwitz-Birkenau on four transports, 31 January 1943; travel on the fourth transport with his father and sister; selection; separation from his father and sister; disinfection; labor in a laundry; evacuation, 18 January 1945; death march to Mauthausen lasting approximately two weeks; death march from Mauthausen to Melk, two days later, and then to Ebensee; labor digging tunnels; starvation; liberation by the US Army, 05 May 1945. Aliya to Eretz Israel on the "Hannah Szenes" ship, 25 December 1945.