Testimony of Aharon Shmidt, born in 1922 in Warsaw, about his escape to Białystok

Testimony of Aharon Shmidt, born in 1922 in Warsaw, about his escape to Białystok Childhood in a secular home; antisemitism before the war; German occupation ensues in September 1939; witness escapes with brother to Soviet-controlled Białystok in January 1941; imiprisoned; exiled to Siberia; forced labor in forests and laying railroad tracks; cold and hunger; allowed to leave Siberia in 1943; enlists in Anders's Army under a Polish identity; fights alongside and under command of the Red Army; fighting all the way to Berlin; wounded and hospitalized in Germany and Warsaw; moves to Sosnowiec for training with Hashomer Hatzair; slipping across borders via Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Italy to Germany; illegal immigration to Eretz Israel and deportation to Cyprus in 1947; re-immigration to Eretz Israel in April 1948.