Testimony of Yaakov Kuperwasser, born in Tarnopol, Poland, 1913, regarding his experiences in Tarnopol, as a forced laborer, in hiding, in Rakita and serving in the Red Army in Germany

Testimony of Yaakov Kuperwasser, born in Tarnopol, Poland, 1913, regarding his experiences in Tarnopol, as a forced laborer, in hiding, in Rakita and serving in the Red Army in Germany From a well-to-do family; attends Polish elementary and high schools; membership in Herzlyia youth movement. Outbreak of the war, 1939; Soviet occupation; works at supplying raw materials to the food industry; drafted into the Ukrainian Army, April 1941; wounded and transfer home; receives information regarding the fate of his siblings; German occupation, 1941; life in Tarnopol including the murder of his parents and sister by the Germans; round up of Jewish men by the Ukrainians; theft of valuables; deportation to prison; prison life including forced labor digging, and removal of corpses of Ukrainians; escape and finds a hiding place in a warehouse; drafted into a Military Engineering Corps unit as an assistant welder; exemption from deportation as a craftsman, 01 September 1941; deportation to Rakita; camp life including finding a hiding place in a cornfield during deportations; liquidation of the camp; escape and finds a hiding place in the home of his Ukrainian former housemaid; life in hiding including living in the chicken coop from July 1943; illness of the Ukrainian woman; liberation by the Red Army, March 1944; drafted into the Red Army and combat in Germany; wounded. Convalescence with help from the Joint; aliya to Israel, 1948.