Testimony of Semion Krivosheev, born in Gomel, Belorussia, 1913, regarding his experiences in the Red Army in the Soviet Air Force and as a POW in German captivity

Testimony of Semion Krivosheev, born in Gomel, Belorussia, 1913, regarding his experiences in the Red Army in the Soviet Air Force and as a POW in German captivity Draft into the Red Army with the outbreak of war between Germany and the Soviet Union, 22 June 1941; training in a short pilot's course in the Red Army Air Force school in Gomel and Novokhopersk; combat in battalion 810 of the 225 aircraft bomber brigade as a machine gunner in IL-2 fighter aircraft; bombs the German forward positions and German airfields; shoots down seven German fighter aircraft; witness is shot down, parachutes to the enemy's rear and is taken captive by the Germans; interrogations by German Luftwaffe officers; torture during the harsh interrogations; transfer to Gross-Rosen camp and then to Buchenwald; attempts to escape from captivity; escape and in hiding until liberation. Return home and reunion with his family members; hostile attitude by the Soviet authorities toward the witness, as a Jew who returned from German captivity; interrogations by the NKVD; contacts with his Red Army combat friends; receives medals and citations for his outstanding combat in the Soviet Air Force during the war; aliya to Israel, 1991.