Nineteen year-old Monya Dunaevski wished to enlist in the Red Army despite his short stature, which would have entitled him to an exemption. In the course of the war, the train carrying Dunaevski and other Soviet troops was bombed; Dunaevski was the sole survivor. Barefoot and in shock, he made his way on foot from village to village, until he met up with another unit of the Red Army, with whom he continued to Berlin.
Pouch in which Monya Dunaevski kept his letters from home
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Yana Levin, Kiryat Motzkin, Israel
Monya Dunaevski, a soldier in the Red Army who fell during the battle for Berlin
