The Jewish holiday of Purim marks the deliverance of the Jews from a royal death decree. Explore these images of Purim celebrations before the outbreak of World War II.
Purim portrait of a kindergarten class at the Reali Hebrew gymnasium. Kovno, Lithuania, March 5, 1939.
Item View
Group portrait of children dressed in Purim costumes. Danzig, 1930-1939.
Item View
Alice and Heinrich Muller pose for a photograph while in costume for the Purim holiday. Hlohovec, Czechoslovakia, ca. 1934–35.
Item View
Group portrait of students at the Beis Yaakov religious school for girls dressed in costumes to celebrate the holiday of Purim. Kolbuszowa, Poland, March 1938.
Item View
Tom (left) and Wolf Stein (right), dressed in Turkish-style costumes, attend a party celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim. Hamburg, Germany, 1936.
Item View
Members of the Chug Ivri (Hebrew Club) in Berlin celebrate Purim with food and song. On the wall is an advertisement for Juedische Rundschau, the newspaper of the German Zionist movement. Berlin, Germany, 1935.
Item View
Members of Chug Ivri (Hebrew Club) of Berlin celebrate Purim. While the man in the tallis (prayer shawl) chants the story of Purim from the scroll, a young boy stands ready to use his grogger (noisemaker) to drown out the recitation of the name of Haman, the villain of the story. Berlin, Germany, 1935.
Item View
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.
