This recording is a formal interview with Beyle Mindel and Isaak Iosipovich Vaisman. They discuss their lives before the war when Bella lived pretty well-off and Isaak in poverty. Isaak went to the Jewish school number 9. Then the conversation moves to their life during the war and Bella states that she lost forty family members during the war. Isaak's family was evacuated to Uzbekistan . He was drafted into the Red Army in 1943 and served until 1946. They discuss life in Berdychiv today and how it compared to living conditions in the Soviet period.

Then the camera moves to the team's van where it shows footage of Berdychiv on the way to the next interview in the town of Tul’chyn to informally meet Rita Shveibish in front of her apartment. They discuss potential interviewees. They then talk about holidays in general, before returning to potential Yiddish-speaking interviewees. The conversation turns to Rita’s work and her efforts to memorialize the Pechera camp. Among other things, Rita works for the Jewish old people’s home in Vinnitsa. The team, together with Shveibish, return to the van in order to drive to the next interview with Yosl Kogan, born in 1927. On the way, they discuss contemporary Jewish life. Shveibish and the team arrive at Kogan’s apartment.

The team greets Kogan and shortly after the formal interview begins. (Part 1 of 3. See Accession # 09-010.53-F MDV 719 and MDV 720) He talks about life during the war. He was liberated by the Red Army, when he lived in the Bershad ghetto. Immediately afterward, he was drafted at the age of 17, and fought at the front for two months. Kogan talks about antisemitism in the Red Army. The conversation turns to life in the ghetto and memorialization of the ghetto. Kogan then discusses education and life before the war, and about his wife’s hiding during the war. They return to Kogan’s life and friends before the war and his service in the Red Army. Kogan talks about the liberation of Berlin in 1945 and about how he wrote his name on the Reichstag wall. The tape concludes with a discussion of Kogan’s poetry and his escape from the Bershad ghetto.