The Russian press today devotes much space to descriptions of heroic acts by Jews on the Russo-German front, featuring especially the case of Capt. Moshe Ladsun, commander of an artillery unit which destroyed 14 Nazi tanks, 51 cannons and annihilated more than 1,700 German soldiers. Directing the operations against the enemy from a tank under heavy fire of the Nazis, Ladsum succeeded in driving the German forces back three kilometers.
The dramatic tale of how Yankel Cohn, a former Minsk tailor, was blinded on the battlefield, but nevertheless succeeded in saving a Russian division from being surrounded by the enemy, is also one of the stories featured in today’s press. Cohn was fighting in a unit which was attacked and almost annihilated by strong German air and infantry units. A piece of shrapnel struck him in the eyes. Wounded and blind, he heard his dying commander order someone to warn the Russian forces in the rear that strong German units had destroyed the Russian vanguard and were about to surround the entire division. He crawled blindly in the direction of the woods where the nearest field headquarters were located and delivered his commander’s message, thus saving the entire division from destruction.
The heroic acts of a 60 year-old Jewish partisan, Abraham Brisniak, and another Jewish partisan known as “grandfather Leizer,” are similarly described in the press today. Leizer is younger than Brisniak. He is only 53 years old.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
