Yakov Polishchuk papers

Includes papers relating to Yakov Polishchuk life as a war prisoner in the forced labor in Germany, Austria, and in the Dachau concentration camp from 1942 to 1945. Polishchuk Yakov was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1923. At the outbreak of World War II, he resided in Kiev. Shortly after he was called to serve in the team for anti-aircraft defence in Kiev and did not manage to escape from the approaching Nazi troops before the occupation in Sept. 1941. In order to save his life, he fled from Kiev to the nearby village of Zazamny where he hid in the house of local peasant, and started to use the false identity of Aleksander Sawitsky (born in 1922 in Shurowki, Poltawa district, Russian origin). In Feb. 1942 he escaped to Poltava district where he was caught by the Nazis and was interned in a camp for prisoners of war under his assumed name. He was sent for forced labor in Germany and Austria from Feb. 1943 to Dec. 1943. In Dec. 1943 Yakov was sent to Dachau concentration camp and was assigned number 59998. In May 1945 he was liberated by American troops.