David Furman, born in Berdichev in 1919, was one of the 1.1
million Soviet soldiers who fought in the Battle of Stalingrad,
the seven-month battle that turned the war on the Eastern front
and left one and a quarter million German and Soviet soldiers
dead. Furman left school at the age of fourteen to become a
carpenter like his father, but he was drafted into the army in
1939. He was stationed in the Far East until the war broke out
in 1941, when he was taken to the front. He fought at the front
until 1943, when he lost his leg in battle. By the time that
Stalingrad began, in August 1942, Furman had already received
word that his entire family — his father, Zelig; his mother,
Leyke; his sister, Kheyved and his two brothers, Moyshe and Berl
--had been murdered by the Nazis in Berdichev. He knew what he
was fighting for. In this clip, Furman, whom we first met at the
synagogue soup kitchen in which the interview takes place, tells
about his experience in the war. Viewers should note that the
question posed to him