The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Inessa Slootskin's Oral History

Inessa Slootskin, retired environmental protection engineer, was interviewed by Agnieszka Ilwicka on July 8, 2013 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This interview was conducted in English.

Inessa Slootskin was born in Minsk, Belarus in 1938.

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Video highlights from this oral history

"City of Ruins": A Communal Apartment in Minsk After WWII

2 min 32 sec

Leaving Minsk for Missouri

3 min 44 sec

Sneaking Around Germans to Safety During WWII

2 min 4 sec

Narrowly Escaping Mass Murder

1 min 52 sec

"It Was Not Allowed": A Narrow Jewish Identity in the Soviet Union

1 min 21 sec

"It's Not A Storm, It's A War!": Remembering The Beginning Of WWII In Brest-Litovsk

3 min 39 sec

Children's Stories In The Woods: Visiting My Father Among The Partisans During WWII

3 min 39 sec

"The Lie": My Father's Disappearance From The Belorussian Partisan Unit During WWII

2 min 21 sec

"I Was The Main Breadwinner": My Experience As A Child Hiding With My Mother And Grandmother In Belorussian Forest Villages During WWII

2 min 17 sec

The Partisan's Son

1 min 53 sec

Artifacts related to this oral history

Walking Through Minsk After the War

media:artifact_image:f6e7036d-fcc7-48a8-bbac-87bd8c26ec25

Family photos

Portrait of Inessa's grandmother

Family photo ripped

Family photos reconstructed

Black and white family photo

Photos and journal

Family Portrait and Portrait of Grandmother

Photos and journal

Photos and journal

Brochure of Partisan Camp

More information about this oral history

Themes:

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