German, Victor Samuilovich

Born in Detroit in a family of Jews who came from the Russian Empire (now Ukraine ) - Samuel (Sam) German (1886–1953) and Rosa Rukhamina (1888–1933) ^[2] . His father moved to New York in 1909 , his mother a year later; after marriage, they settled in Detroit, where his father became a union leader at one of Henry Ford 's car factories ^[3] . Victor, from childhood, knew only English and Yiddish . When he was 16 years old, his family, along with other pro-communist workers at Ford automobile plants, moved to the USSR to build the Gorky Automobile Plant (in September 1931) ^{[4] [5]} . His parents died in Gorky (mother in 1933, father in 1953).

He was engaged in aviation and parachuting, athletics and boxing ^{[6] [7]} . September 6, 1934 set a world record for long skydiving (142 seconds of free flight from a height of 24,000 feet) ^{[8] [9] [10] [11]} . The record was not formally fixed, as it turned out that Herman was an American citizen (the family renounced American citizenship and received Soviet citizenship only in 1936 ). He participated in the preparations for the record long jump of Nikolai Evdokimov . Together with his brother, he played for the team of the Gorky Automobile Baseball Plant ^{[12] [13]} . At the end of 1937, he was expelled from the Higher Parachute School of Osoviahim near Moscow , was an instructor in physical education at the Spartak Society in Gorky . On July 20, 1938, he was arrested and convicted under article 58-6 (espionage) to 10 years in prison camp ^[14] . After his release in 1949 - in exile in Krasnoyarsk , he worked as a boxing trainer in the sports club of the Dynamo society and as head of the regional council of the Spartak society, and in 1951 as a trainer in Yeniseisk . Among the pupils in Krasnoyarsk - heavy boxer Yuri Ovchinnikov, champion of the RSFSR V. Voiloshnikov, B. Kokorin ^[15] . In 1953 he worked as the head of the department of the Kraisovet of the Spartak society, lived in Krasnoyarsk, was re-arrested under article 58-6, and sentenced by the Special Conference to exile in a settlement in the Krasnoyarsk Territory ^[16] . In total, he spent 18 years in forced labor camps and in exile (rehabilitated in December 1955 ) ^[17] . In 1949 , already in Krasnoyarsk, he met his future wife Galina and in 1959 , shortly after gaining freedom of movement, he settled in Chisinau , where he lived with his wife and two daughters until his second emigration to Detroit in February 1976 ^{[18] [19 ] [19 ] ] [20] [21]} .

In 1959-1960, he was the head coach of the Moldavian boxing team, then, due to the housing problem, he settled in Chenesheci , where he worked at the state farm, a year later he was again appointed head coach in Chisinau, but soon applied for repatriation to the United States and left the coaching job. He was engaged in translations from English and into English, wrote several textbooks of poems and prose for children and youth (“Humpty-Dumpty”, “Hello, Children!”), Manuals in English (“English for the smallest”, “Sport” »), Was a consultant in English at the Union of Filmmakers of Moldova and an English teacher in kindergarten and teacher training ^[22] . Since 1970, he continued to file petitions for repatriation annually until, thanks to the intervention of the US State Department, he received permission to leave. After returning to the United States, he filed a lawsuit for $ 10 million against Ford Motor Co (1978), demanding compensation for unfulfilled conditions for the return of workers to their homeland after the completion of the contract for the construction of the Gorky Automobile Plant ^{[23] [24]} . The defendant claimed that the workers had recruited and remained in the USSR by virtue of their own convictions.

According to his book “Coming Out of the Ice” ( From Under the Ice , 1979) , a television film of the same name was put on CBS-TV in 1982 (the role of Victor German was played by John Savage ) ^[25] . He also wrote the book “The Gray People” ( Gray People , 1981) about the fate of 300 Ford automobile workers sent to work in the USSR, “Realities: Might and Paradox in Soviet Russia” ( Reality: Power and Paradox in Soviet Russia , 1982) and “Six Countries to the United States” ( Six countries from America , 1984) ^[26] . He published journalistic and analytical articles in various periodicals.

His elder brother Leo German (1911-1974) married the first wife of the American trade union leader Walter Reuter (1907-1970) Lucille, who remained in the USSR; subsequently committed suicide. Two sisters - Rosa Miriam German (1925 ?, a pathologist) remained in the USSR, Rebecca Kemsley (Rebecca E. Kemsley, in Laing's first marriage, 1913-1994) returned to the USA in the early 1930s ^{[27] [28 ] ]} .

• English for the little ones: poems, games, songs and puzzles in English for children of preschool and primary school age. Chisinau: Cartya Moldova, 1964.
• Sport. Textbook in English. M .: Higher School, 1968. - 128 p.
• Humpty-Dumpty / Humpty Dumpty: funny poems, riddles, songs, drawings (toy book in English). M.: Kid, 1969.
• Coming Out of the Ice: An Unexpected Life. Freedom Press, 1979 (Second Edition 1984, 18 reprints). In French - Le survivant des glaces, Robert Laffont: Paris , 1984 and Geneva : Editions de l'Agora, 1984; Afrikaans - Herbore uit die ys: 'n onverwagte lewe, Cape Town : HAUM, 1984.
• The Gray People: Hundred of Americans Murdered in the Gulag (sexual abuse of political prisoners). Independent Publishing House, 1981.
• Realities: Might and Paradox in Soviet Russia (with Fred E. Dohrs). Independent Publishers, 1982.
• Six Countries to the United States. Vantage Press: New York, 1984.

• Victor German with his family in Chisinau (1962) (inaccessible link)