George Vasley (born Vasilevsky 1902-1977) was a civil engineer born in the Ukraine. He served in the Ukrainian National Army as a cavalry officer. He fled to Czechoslovakia in 1923 after the Russian Revolution. He married Elizabeth Buazdil (b. 1909) in 1933 in Slovakia. They had three children: Emma (b. 1934), George (b. 1936), and Helen (b. 1943). George was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Poland from which he escaped after 30 months. He emigrated to the United States from Regensburg, Germany in 1947; his wife and children joined him two years later in 1949. The family settled in Harrisburg, PA. George Vasley was a bridge designer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
Notes inside canister:"No. 9. 1944 Spišská Nová Ves. Emma and Jurka demonstrating their skill in the art of skiing... Vitaliy and Peter best friends of our children. Nazi's slave laborers, the Ukrainian women, working for a German company Pomona" However, USHMM does not consider these women to be forced to work as slave laborers and have found no record of a Pomona work camp in the area of Spišská Nová Ves. Photographs of the area around Spišská Nová Ves after the retreat of the Wehrmacht and the arrival of the Red Army in January 1945 showing similar damage are located here: http://www.kvhbeskydy.sk/oslobodenie-okresov-spisska-nova-ves-levoca-a-gelnica/. At the same time as this movie was taken, the Holocaust in Slovakia and in Spisska Nova Ves had already started.
Outdoors in Spišská Nová Ves. Children, including Emma and George and their friends Vitaliy and Peter, ski in the snow. 00:00:50 Women greet each other, shake hands (with Elizabeth Vasilevsky?) , and smile for the camera.One fixes her hair and looks in a handheld mirror. The two women link arms with George Vasilevsky (camera around his neck) and proceed towards the camera. CUs of the two women, snowball fight, probably at the residence of the Vasilevsky family. One writes a word in the snow with the tripod. 00:04:06 Teenage girl (Emma?) with glasses in scout uniform walks towards the camera. 00:04:18 Several women (possibly Ukrainian or Russian) in dark coveralls crouch beside brick rubble, pounding hammers. They smile for the camera. Male in the background. The girls smile and laugh while they repair damage (date unknown, could be January 1945 after the arrival of the Red Army), and pose for the camera (the two women in the earlier yard scene appear here). VAR shots of the infrastructure damage, demolished buldings, and piles of bricks. 00:06:43 Woman with kerchief begs the cameraman to stop filming. More group shots, women with sledgehammers.
Children ski; Women repair damage in Slovakia