Testimony of Isser Shmukler, born in 1924 in Iwje, Poland, about his experiences in the Lida ghetto, with the Bielski partisans, and with the Red Army in Germany

Testimony of Isser Shmukler, born in 1924 in Iwje, Poland, about his experiences in the Lida ghetto, with the Bielski partisans, and with the Red Army in Germany The German occupation begins in 1941; 200 leading members of the Jewish community murdered; establishment of the ghetto; rumors about murder of Jews in towns in the area; Judenrat is constituted; working in Lida in German arms warehouses; smuggling a rifle into the Lida ghetto; Aktion involving 1,000 Jews; observing the Aktion from the roof of his home; escaping to the partisans; joining the Bielski brothers' partisan group in 1942; receiving scouting and guarding duties; family members deported to the Borysław, Krasna, and Smolensk camps; receiving information about family members' death; wounded in manhunt for partisans in 1943; aided by villagers; lengthy life in hiding in a bunker; liberation of the area in 1944; inducted into the Red Army; transferred with the army as far as Koenigsberg in 1945; back to Iwje in 1947; moving to Poland in 1947; immigration to Israel in 1959.