WW2 Jewish Veterans

Discover the History of Jewish Soviet Veterans

This website contains video interview archives with Jewish veterans who fought with the Soviet Armed Forces against the Nazis in WW2, as well as partisans and Leningrad blockade survivors.

The Second World War Told By Jewish Soviet War Veterans

This website contains video interviews with 67 Jewish veterans who fought with the Soviet Armed Forces against the Nazis in WW2, as well as partisans and Leningrad blockade survivors. The interviewees, who are all Canadian residents, were interviewed in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary between 2010 and 2015. The goal was to preserve their memories and firsthand accounts of the Jewish war time experience in the former Soviet Union. In addition, carefully researched information about the time period: including brief history of Jews in Russia pre/post war, major WW2 battles, medals, army leaders and description of political organizations help set the context of these extraordinary experiences.

Watch Our Videos

The combination of eye witness accounts and background information on this website are aimed to serve as a digital museum, create awareness and understanding of a little known part of Jewish history. These videos are an authentic oral history of The Second World War, a chance to view world shaping events through the eyes of someone who experienced them first hand.

Toronto Veterans

Mark Bas
Born December 25th 1922 Smolensk, Soviet Union.
Interviewed In: Toronto, Ontario

Montreal Veterans

Isaak Budnitski
Born April 29th 1918 Vasilkov, Ukraine.
Interviewed In: Montreal, Quebec

Calgary Veterans

Abram Gamer
Born 1938 Minsk, Belarus
Interviewed In: Calgary, Alberta

Edmonton Veterans

Nikolai Golosarski
Born 1922 Vinnitsa, Ukraine
Interviewed In: Edmonton, Alberta

Vancouver Veterans

Sheil Barkin
Born 1923 Daugavpils, Lithuania
Interviewed In: Vancouver, British Columbia

All Veterans

Isaak Ashmian
Born: December 19th 1919 Kharkov, Ukraine
Interviewed In: Toronto, Ontario

History

Up to 500,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union fought in the Second World War with the Soviet Armed Forces with up to 250,000 perishing on the battlegrounds. At the start of the war there were 26 Jewish generals and admirals, and 203 were promoted to these ranks during the war.

Jewish people were also one of the highest decorated ethnic groups in The Soviet Red Army receiving 141,502 orders and medals for their service. An amazing accomplishment, considering the overall Jewish population in the Soviet Union at the time was approximately 1.5% of the general population. These brave men and women, including all of our interviewees, were involved in a variety of roles throughout the Eastern Front including serving in the tank forces, in the artillery, in the air force, and in the navy. Many Jews also served in the ranks of military translators, physicians, nurses, military correspondents, and political officers who were attached to the various types of forces, yet few know their story.

These testimonials have been accepted into the permanent collections of the archives of Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.. Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center is the world’s most important museum for preservation of Jewish history during the holocaust and WW2. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated to helping people confront hatred, prevent genocide and promote human dignity. You can view the collection here.