Avraham Michael Greenzide
Chairman of the Second World War Veterans Association
“I was seventeen and a half when I got an induction order to the Red Army, and by September 1943 I was drafted and sent to basic training. As new recruits, we all became familiar with warfare and weapons, but no boot camp could prepare us for the smell of burnt flesh.
I was enlisted to the Red Army and fought the Nazis in Estonia, Norway, and Poland. In the harsh battle of Katowice, Poland, held on January 12th, 1944, I felt for the first time what it meant to be hurled into hell. It was very simple: you either killed or got killed. Whoever claims he knows no fear in battle is a liar, or someone who hasn’t the slightest idea. I was never a coward, I charged forward whenever I had to, but fear never left my side. In letters I wrote to my mother I declared that I would fight to the bitter end. The Nazis had killed 137 members of my family, and I was eager to take my revenge on them, and on Hitler. I never cared much for Stalin or Lenin. I fought for my life.”