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Soviet troops entered the Auschwitz killing center in January 1945 and liberated thousands of sick and exhausted prisoners. This Soviet military footage was filmed shortly after the camp was liberated. It shows Soviet doctors examining victims of sterilization, poisonous injection, and skin graft experiments.
Esther was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Chelm, Poland. In December 1942, she was deported from a work camp to the Sobibor killing center in occupied Poland. Upon arrival at Sobibor, Esther was selected to work in a sorting shed. She sorted clothing and the possessions of the people killed at the camp. During the summer and fall of 1943, Esther was among a group of prisoners in the Sobibor camp who planned an uprising and escape. Leon Feldhendler and Aleksandr (Sasha) Pechersky were the leaders…
Esther was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Chelm, Poland. In December 1942, she was deported from a work camp to the Sobibor killing center in occupied Poland. Upon arrival at Sobibor, Esther was selected to work in a sorting shed. She sorted clothing and the possessions of the people killed at the camp. During the summer and fall of 1943, Esther was among a group of prisoners in the Sobibor camp who planned an uprising and escape. Leon Feldhendler and Aleksandr (Sasha) Pechersky were the leaders…
Abraham was raised in Czestochowa, Poland, and became a barber. He and his family were deported to the Treblinka killing center from the Czestochowa ghetto in 1942. At Treblinka, Abraham was selected for forced labor. He was forced to cut women's hair before they were gassed, and he sorted clothing from arriving transports. Abraham escaped from the camp in 1943 and made his way back to Czestochowa. He worked in a labor camp from June 1943 until liberation by Soviet troops in 1945.
A soccer team of the Jewish sports club, Ha-koach (The Strength). Kalisz, Poland, ca. 1933.
SS chief Heinrich Himmler (left) and Hans Frank, head of the Generalgouvernement in occupied Poland. Krakow, Poland, 1943.
During the Warsaw ghetto uprising, German soldiers round up Jews in factories for deportation. Warsaw ghetto, Poland, April or May 1943.
SS personnel capture two Jewish resistance fighters who were pulled from a bunker during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Warsaw, Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943.
German soldiers arrest Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, May 1943. The Warsaw ghetto uprising began on April 19, 1943, after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. By May 16, 1943, the Germans had crushed the uprising, deported surviving ghetto residents, and left the ghetto area in ruins.
Jews captured by the SS during the Warsaw ghetto uprising are interrogated beside the ghetto wall before being sent to the Umschlagplatz, the assembly point for deportation from the ghetto. The original German caption reads: "Search and Interrogation." Poland, May 1943.
Photograph from SS General Juergen Stroop's report showing the Warsaw ghetto after the German suppression of the ghetto uprising. Stroop, commander of German forces that suppressed the Warsaw ghetto uprising, compiled an album of photographs and other materials. This album later came to known as "The Stroop Report." The right of this image from the album shows a column of Jews being transported out of the ghetto for deportation. Warsaw, Poland, April–May, 1943.
Ruins of the Warsaw ghetto after the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, May 1943.
Distant view of smoke from the Treblinka killing center, set on fire by prisoners during a revolt. This scene was photographed by a railway worker. Treblinka, Poland, August 2, 1943.
View of the smoldering ruins of a building in Warsaw following a German aerial attack. Warsaw, Poland, September 1939.
Jewish women and children deported from Hungary, separated from the men, line up for selection. Auschwitz camp, Poland, May 1944.
Irena Sendler (1910–2008) was a member of the Council for Aid to Jews, codenamed “Żegota.” Żegota was a clandestine rescue organization of Poles and Jews in German-occupied Poland. Supported by the Polish government-in-exile, Żegota coordinated efforts to save Jews from Nazi persecution and murder. It operated from 1942 to 1945. Irena Sendler (Sendlerowa) was working as a social worker in Warsaw when World War II broke out in 1939. After the Nazis forced Warsaw’s Jews to move into the ghetto…
Władysław Bartoszewski (1922–2015) was a co-founder and member of the Council for Aid to Jews, codenamed “Żegota.” Żegota was a clandestine rescue organization of Poles and Jews in German-occupied Poland. Supported by the Polish government-in-exile, Żegota coordinated efforts to save Jews from Nazi persecution and murder. It operated from 1942 to 1945. After World War II broke out in 1939, Władysław worked as a janitor at a Polish Red Cross clinic. In the fall of 1940, Władysław was caught…
German forces and Polish civilians on the outskirts of Warsaw. In the background of the photograph, the city burns as a result of the German military assault. Warsaw, Poland, September 1939.
A German motorcycle unit advances through the Bydgoszcz region during the invasion of Poland. September 18, 1939.
German troops parade through Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland. Warsaw, Poland, September 28-30, 1939.
Adolf Hitler (lower right) gives Nazi salute as he reviews victorious German troops. Warsaw, Poland, October 5, 1939.
An official visit of Heinrich Himmler to the Lodz ghetto. Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Jewish council, greets the Nazi officials. Lodz, Poland, June 5, 1941.
Jews from the Lodz ghetto are forced to transfer to a narrow-gauge railroad at Kolo during deportation to the Chelmno killing center. Kolo, Poland, probably 1942.
Julien Bryan was an important US documentary filmmaker and photographer who captured the everyday life, work, and culture of individuals and communities in many countries around the globe. Bryan was filming in western Europe in the summer of 1939. In the first week of September 1939, Bryan made his way to Warsaw just as all foreign reporters, diplomats, and Polish government officials were fleeing the capital in the wake of the German invasion. One of the few foreign photographers left in the city, he…
Teachers from Bydgoszcz and the surrounding area a few moments before their execution by firing squad in the "Valley of Death" near Fordon. The first in line is Wladyslaw Bielinski, a primary school teacher from Wiag. The Nazis sought to destroy Polish culture and the Polish nation, and eliminate any resistance, by arresting and murdering Poles. German police, SS, and army units and ethnic German “self-defense” forces shot thousands of Polish civilians. Among those shot were wealthy landowners, some…
This photograph is a still from Soviet film footage of the liberation of Auschwitz. The film was made by the film unit of the First Ukrainian Front. Relief workers and Soviet soldiers lead child survivors of Auschwitz through a narrow passage between two barbed-wire fences. Standing next to the nurse and behind them (wearing white hats) are two sets of twin sisters. During the camp's years of operation, many children in Auschwitz were subjected to medical experiments by Nazi physician Josef Mengele.
View of the Sobibor camp gate in the spring of 1943. Jews deported to the Sobibor killing center were driven through the gate into the camp on foot, by truck or horse-drawn cart. The train track led through a separate entrance to the right onto the site. Pine branches were braided into the fence to make it difficult to see in from the outside. This image comes from an album and collection kept by Johann Niemann, who became deputy commandant of the Sobibor killing center after holding positions in the…
Rare photograph showing Sobibor killing center personnel relaxing and posing, all while implementing the mass murder of at least 167,000 innocent Jews.
Rare photograph showing a view of the German personnel living quarters at the entrance to the Sobibor killing center in German-occupied Poland.
Rare image of the Sobibor killing center, taken from an album of photos belonging to Sobibor deputy camp commandant Johann Niemann.
Rare image of the site of the Sobibor killing center, taken from an album of photos belonging to Sobibor deputy camp commandant Johann Niemann.
A group photograph including Johann Niemann in front of the old officers' dining room in the Sobibor killing center in German-occupied Poland, spring 1943.
View of a building that served as a dining room for the Germans and as lodgings for the camp commanders at the Sobibor killing center in German-occupied Poland.
Propaganda poster depicting two Germans in the field during World War II. After the war began in 1939, Police Battalions were deployed alongside the German military. This poster was designed by SS-Hauptsturmführer Felix Albrecht in 1941.
April 19, 1943. On this date, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began, the largest uprising by Jews during WWII and the first significant urban revolt against German occupation in Europe.
March 1, 1942. On this date, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps opened Auschwitz-Birkenau (or Auschwitz II).
May 20, 1940. On this date, SS authorities established the Auschwitz concentration camp complex.
October 15, 1941. On this date, Heinrich Himmler tasks SS Gen. Odilo Globocnik with implementing "Operation Reinhard."
September 3, 1939. On this date, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany after the German invasion of Poland.
Zofia Burowska (Chorowicz) donated this doll, which dates from the 1930s, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Zofia's parents gave her the doll before the war and she kept it with her in the Wolbrum and Krakow ghettos, Poland. The doll and some of her family's other belongings were left with non-Jewish friends for safekeeping. Zofia was deported to a forced-labor camp for Jews near Krakow, to the Skarzysko-Kamienna camp (also in Poland), and then to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany,…
Soviet military footage showing children who were liberated at Auschwitz by the Soviet army in January 1945.
Hitler was determined to overturn the military and territorial provisions of the Versailles treaty, among it was much resented loss of the city of Danzig after WWI.
The German-Soviet Pact paved the way for the joint invasion and occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939.
Explore a timeline of key events during 1939 in the history of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust.
Children's diaries bear witness to some of the most heartbreaking events of the Holocaust. Learn about the diary and experiences of Israel Unikowski.
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