Testimony of Esther (Gail) Spektor, born in Veisiejai, 1927, regarding her experiences in Veisiejai, the Kaunas Ghetto, the Slobodka Ghetto, her escape and in hiding

Testimony of Esther (Gail) Spektor, born in Veisiejai, 1927, regarding her experiences in Veisiejai, the Kaunas Ghetto, the Slobodka Ghetto, her escape and in hiding Well-to-do Zionist family, active Zionists in Veisiejai next to Kaunas; death of her mother, 1937; aliya of her older brother to Eretz Israel, 1935. Absorption of refugees in their house, 1935; operation of forgery equipment to create transit documents to Turkey; oppressive Soviet rule; exiles to Siberia; closure of Hebrew schools; entry of the Germans and the family's escape, 1941; air-raids on the train; capture of the family by Lithuanians; murder of the men in the Seventh Fort and release of the women; transfer to the Kaunas Ghetto and then to the Slobodka Ghetto; murders by Lithuanians; return of her brother Issar from the Red Army; ghetto life, the small ghetto and the large ghetto, with a connecting bridge; social and cultural activities for youth; the I.B.Z. (Irgun Brit Zion), and Eshel underground movements; the large "Aktion", October 1941; building bunkers; escape from the ghetto with help from her sister Miriam; in hiding in forests with other refugees with help from the non-Jews in the bunker; liberation by the Red Army; hostile attitude toward the inmates by the Soviets; improvement in their condition after intervention by a Jewish general. Return to Kaunas; en route to aliya to Eretz Israel via Graz, Vilna, Rowne, Stanislawow, Czernowitz, Pzesow, Bucharest and Bari; on an illegal immigrant ship to the Herzliya shore, 25 September 1945.