Video History Archives
Of Jewish Soviet Soldiers
during WW2

Sima Vesyoly

Born January 1st 1923 Gomel, Belarus.
Interviewed In: Toronto, Ontario
Medals Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War (1st and 2nd Class), Medal For Victory over Japan and Victory over Germany In The Great Patriotic War

“We worked all morning to evening. All the patients were seriously injured”

Nurse in Field Hospital – with 2nd Bellorusian Front, Germany, Japan.

Sima arrived at The 3rd Belorussian Front in 1943. Staying just a few kilometers behind the soldiers, Sima and the rest of the medical staff were under fire on a regular basis:

“We were bombed and fired at. Many nurses were killed. Medical staff air raid, it was so scary. We were saving the wounded soldiers all the same.”

Sima stayed with the soldiers for the rest of the war, reaching Berlin in 1945.

After the war in Europe, Sima was transferred to North Korea. Stationed primarily in Pyongyang, where she treated Japanese POWs in addition to Soviet soldiers: “Many Japanese soldiers were captured. They got a treatment which was better than the one our soldiers got [Soviets captured by Japanese]”

Sima was demobilized late in 1946. She worked in a bone tuberculosis clinic for 30 years before immigrating to Canada.

View Other Veterans Interviews

Boris Kravitz

Born 1927 Noravlla, Belarus.
Interviewed In: Toronto, Ontario
Medals Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War (1st and 2nd Class), Medal for Courage, Medal For Capture of Konigsberg and Victory over Germany In The Great Patriotic War

Zinovi Feigin

Born April 3rd 1926 Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union.
Interviewed In: Montreal, Quebec
Medals Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War (1st and 2nd Class), Liberation of Vienna, Medal for Defense of Leningrad and Victory over Germany In The Great Patriotic War

Philip Potiyevsky

Born: August 6th 1922 Malin, Ukraine. Passed Away: March 15, 2014 Montreal, Quebec.
Interviewed In: Montreal, Quebec
Medals Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War (1st and 2nd Class), Medal for Courage, Medal For Liberation of Warsaw, Order of the Red Star and Victory over Germany In The Great Patriotic War