In Remembrance
WW2 Jewish Veterans
Video interview archives of Jewish veterans who fought with the Soviet Armed Forces against the Nazis — alongside partisans and survivors of the Siege of Leningrad.
The Second World War
Told by Jewish Soviet War Veterans
This website holds video interviews with 67 Jewish veterans who fought with the Soviet Armed Forces against the Nazis, alongside partisans and Leningrad blockade survivors. All Canadian residents, they were interviewed in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary between 2010 and 2015 — to preserve their memories and firsthand accounts of the Jewish wartime experience in the former Soviet Union.
Carefully researched historical context — a brief history of Jews in Russia before and after the war, and the major battles the veterans fought in — sets the stage for these extraordinary lives.
History
The History They Lived
Up to 500,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union fought in the Second World War with the Soviet Armed Forces, with as many as 250,000 perishing on the battlegrounds. At the start of the war there were 26 Jewish generals and admirals, and 203 more were promoted to those ranks during it.
Jewish people were among the highest-decorated ethnic groups in the Red Army, receiving 141,502 orders and medals — a remarkable record, given they were roughly 1.5% of the Soviet population. They served across the Eastern Front: in the tank forces, the artillery, the air force and the navy, and as translators, physicians, nurses, correspondents and political officers. Yet few know their story.
Their Voices
Across Canada
Mark Bas
Born December 25, 1922 — Smolensk, USSR
Interviewed in Toronto
View their story →
Isaak Budnitski
Born April 29, 1918 — Vasilkov, Ukraine
Interviewed in Montreal
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Abram Gamer
Born 1938 — Minsk, Belarus
Interviewed in Calgary
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Nikolai Golosarski
Born 1922 — Vinnitsa, Ukraine
Interviewed in Edmonton
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Sheil Barkin
Born 1923 — Daugavpils, Latvia
Interviewed in Vancouver
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Isaak Ashmian
Born December 19, 1919 — Kharkov, Ukraine
Interviewed in Toronto
View their story →Lest We Forget
These are the voices of Jewish Soviet veterans of the Great Patriotic War — preserved in their own words, so that their courage and their sacrifice are never forgotten.
In the Permanent Collections Of
These testimonies have been accepted into the permanent collections of both institutions — preserved in perpetuity.