Yaacov Rats

Scope and Content: This accession consists of one injury certificate for Russian Jewish war veteran Yaacov Rats. The certificate is dated 26 August 1943, and is in reference to an arm injury caused by a piece of shrapnel.

Custodial History: Donor has original record. It was loaned to the Archives to be copied and returned as part of the Russian Jewish War Veterans oral history program.

Administrative History: Yakov Lvovich Rats was born in 1923 in Vitebsk, Belarus. At the age of one, his parents moved the family to Leningrad. Rats was drafted into the Russian army on 15 July 1941 and was transported to a military college in Ulianovsk. After college, he was sent to the front and actively served until 1943, when he was wounded by a piece of shrapnel. Rats then served on the home front at a tank college. In 1946, he enrolled in a military tank academy and upon graduation in 1952 he returend to the army until his service retirement in 1966. In 1991, he moved from Leningrad to Israel and then in 2003, he immigrated to Canada.