The tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Boris Matveevich Gershtein. (Part 2 of 4. See MDV 553, MDV 555, and MDV 556) He continues to talk in great detail about his escape at the beginning of the war and his ultimate encounter with the Red Army. Gershtein and three other children arrived in Sarny, where they encountered the Red Army in the woods. Military commander Kuznetsov took them to the echelons awaiting evacuation. They received help from a Ukrainian to get on an animal transport. After roughly some hundred kilometers, the train could not continue because of a bombed bridge. Gershtein and his friends went into hiding with only a few clothes that they could grab from home. The next morning, a freight train transporting wood headed to Kyiv stopped and threw off the wood in order to make room for the refugees. Once the children arrived in Kyiv, they received food and shelter. Then they assisted with digging up potatoes nearby Kyiv. He then evacuated to Andizhan, Uzbekistan.

The conversation turns to his Red Army service. Gershtein was drafted in 1944 and served in a number of divisions, such as infantry and combat engineering. He spent a year in Germany demining and returned to Ukraine in 1949. He then discusses his return to his native village Holoby in 1949 when he searched for his parents. His house was used as an office by the MTS (Machine and Tractor Station). He paid lawyers to potentially sue the municipal government. However, he was told that he stood no chance since they fixed up the building after the war. The conversation turns to his work and education after the war at a technical school, as well as his move to Kovel' in 1968.

He then talks about his family's life after the war. In 1970 he found out about his sister, brother and parents' move to America. The conversation moves to prewar Jewish life in Holoby. Until 1936 Gershtein does not remember antisemitic incidences. They briefly talk about a non-Jewish friend who speaks Yiddish to Gershtein and the possibility of an interview. They return to discussing prewar Jewish life and childhood memories. He describes religious buildings, such as the synagogue and mikvah, to which he used to go with his father every Friday. He remembers the two kosher butchers Chaim Wolf Goldberg and Arbe Sima. The rebbes would travel to the surrounding shtetls (towns) to visit small prayer houses (kloyzn). Gershtein frequently attended the local Yiddish club and recalls a few Yiddish songs from there.

The conversation moves to holiday tradition, in particular Purim in 1936. He collected quite a good amount of money during Purim from miller Katz, for instance. He then surveys the local population of Holoby, including rich people (wood merchants and millers) and poor people (in particular his uncle Rakhmil Vitsnudl, a dairy man who produced milk in a centrifugal system). He remembers traveling paupers who stopped by their house for some food. Gershtein then talks about prewar religious life when he attended synagogue with his father, before he reads Hebrew prayers. The conversation moves to life today and medical services, as well as his return to postwar life in Holoby.

The interview with Gershtein gets briefly interrupted with the arrival of Gershtein's non-Jewish friend Ignat Petrovich Oykhovitch, who learned Yiddish during his childhood and works as a journalist for the local newspaper. He tells the team a few Yiddish words that he picked up playing with his Jewish friends in the village Rozhyshche (Yiddish: Rozhishtch), containing a Jewish population of 48%. Oykhovitch briefly talks about prewar Jewish life in his native village in Russian. Gershtein then tells the team an anecdote from his childhood and they discuss cultural terminology. They both sing a Yiddish song. Gershtein then discusses the celebration of holidays and food customs before the war. The tape concludes with Gershtein remembering a religious song in Yiddish.