Interview

Frida Pecherskaia was born in 1927 in Bratslav. Her father Yosif was a coachman. She had four siblings. Her brother Hershl died in the war at the age of 17, while serving in the Red Army. At the age of 12, Frida was imprisoned in the Pechera concentration camp, where she witnessed the murder of her mother. She also lost two of her sisters in the Pechera concentration camp. Frida escaped the camp and went to Bratslav but was taken back to Pechera by the Germans. After the liberation of the Pechera concentration camp, she returned to Bratslav. She has been living in Tulchyn since her wedding in 1945.

They Took Her – Alive

Tulchyn, Ukraine

Frida Pecherskaia, together with her mother and two sisters, was brought to Pechera from her native Bratslav. Her brother and father had both been drafted into the army before the Germans arrived in town. Her brother died at the front at the age of seventeen; her father survived. Her youngest sister, who was only six months old when they were taken to Pechera, died within a week of their arrival in the camp. Her other sister, Rivele, was also dying of hunger but had not yet succumbed when she was taken to be buried. The Jewish inmates charged with collecting the dead took her alive and threw her onto the cart of corpses.