Watch the testimony of Isaac Gordon, a Polish Jew who was part of the Bielski Partisan group, an armed resistance group who risked their lives to oppose the Nazis. Isaac Gordon settled in Philadelphia after World War II.
About the Interviewee
Isaac Gordon, son of Chaya and Eliezer Gordon, was born on December 21, 1923, in Iwje, Poland (now Belarus). He had six siblings, four of whom survived the Holocaust. At the beginning of World War II, Iwje was occupied by the Soviet Union. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and Iwje was occupied by the Germans. After a ghetto was established in Iwje, Isaac was forced to live there. He was later sent to the Lida ghetto; he escaped to the Naliboki Forest and became a member of the Bielski Partisans. Isaac also fought with the Aleksander Nevsky Partisan Brigades.
After liberation by Soviet Armed Forces, Isaac lived in an Italian displaced persons’ camp. He eventually went to British Mandate Palestine (now Israel), and fought in the Israeli War for Independence. He married his wife, Ruth, in 1951, and they immigrated to the United States in 1959. The couple settled in Philadelphia and had three children and 14 grandchildren. This interview took place on July 17, 1996, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.