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The word genocide did not exist prior to 1944. The term was coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphel Lemkin, who sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic mass murder during the Holocaust, including the destruction of European Jews.
German authorities established a ghetto in Minsk in July 1941, shortly after German forces occupied the city. About 80,000 Jews were initially crowded into the ghetto, with 24,000 more people deported there later that year. In August 1941, the Germans began mass killing operations against the residents of the ghetto.
On September 5, 1942, the SS and Police Leader of the Warsaw District issued this announcement threatening the death penalty for anyone who aided Jews who had left the ghetto without authorization. This poster was put up in the wake of the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka killing center in summer 1942. SS officials were well aware that thousands of Jews had fled the ghetto to go into hiding and urged people to turn them in. The poster reminds the city's non-Jewish…
This image shows a print of a portrait drawing by artist Esther Lurie. Lurie documented scenes of life in the Kovno ghetto and contributed to the secret archives there. The subject of the portrait is a young woman in a checked dress with two Star of David patches. This print is a version of the drawing, "Portrait of a Young Girl with Two Yellow Badges," which Lurie did in the Kovno ghetto and for which she was awarded the Dizengoff Prize in 1946 in Palestine. Because the majority of Lurie's works were…
Dosia, her older sister and parents lived on her grandfather's estate in the town of Ozorkow, eight miles from Lodz. Dosia's parents were secular Jews. They spoke both Polish and Yiddish to each other, but only Polish to their children. Dosia's father worked as an accountant, and her mother was active in organizing charity events for several of Ozorkow's Jewish organizations. 1933-39: A few days after Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Dosia saw the Polish army retreat through Ozorkow, carrying their wounded…
A child's dress embroidered with red and blue flowers with small green leaves. This dress was hand embroidered by Lola Kaufman's mother in the Czortkow ghetto. Lola (born Lea Rein) wore this dress when she went into hiding. Lola was hidden first under a bed in the house of the woman who used to deliver milk to the family, then in a dugout under a cellar of a barn where she joined three other Jews in hiding. In March 1944, the Soviets liberated the area. The hidden Jews left their hideout in the middle of…
Program for an evening performance sponsored by the Shanghai Jewish Club. The program included the play "The Day of His Return" and a concert of Jewish songs. On April 27, 1943, the day of this performance featuring Warsaw Jewish actress Raya Zomina, fierce fighting continued in the Warsaw ghetto between German troops and Jews who chose to resist Nazi efforts to liquidate the ghetto. Terrifying rumors about the Holocaust reached the Jewish refugees in Shanghai, but they did not receive reliable news or…
The Germans occupied Riga in 1941, and confined the Jews to a ghetto. In late 1941, at least 25,000 Jews from the ghetto were massacred at the Rumbula forest, near Riga. Steven and his brother were sent to a small ghetto for able-bodied men. In 1943 Steven was deported to the Kaiserwald camp and sent to a nearby work camp. In 1944 he was transferred to Stutthof and forced to work in a shipbuilding firm. In 1945, Steven and his brother survived a death march and were liberated by Soviet forces.
Arie Wilner, a founder of the Warsaw ghetto's Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB). He was killed in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Warsaw, Poland, before 1943.
Abraham Blum, leader of the Bund (Jewish Socialist party) and member of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB). Blum participated in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, between 1940 and 1943.
Women prisoners lie on thin mattresses on the floor of a barracks in the women's camp in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Czechoslovakia, between 1941 and 1945.
Standing room ticket for an opera performed on April 21, 1945, in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Group portrait of a Jewish partisan unit operating in the Lithuanian forests. Many of its members had been involved in resistance activities in the Kovno ghetto. Lithuania, 1944.
Jacob Edelstein, chairman of the Jewish council in Theresienstadt. He was deported, and shot in Auschwitz in 1944. Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, 1942–1943.
Yitzhak (Antek) Zuckerman, Zionist youth leader and a founder of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB). He fought in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Place and date uncertain.
False identification card photo of Benjamin Miedzyrzecki (Benjamin Meed) as a member of the Warsaw ghetto underground. Warsaw, Poland, 1943.
Group portrait of teenage boys in the Lodz ghetto. Dawid Sierakowiak is in the 3rd row, 4th from right. Dawid kept a diary from before the war where he meticulously noted not only events but also his own feelings, moods, and opinions. Dawid was an avid reader and an excellent observer.
Arrival of a transport of Dutch Jews in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Czechoslovakia, February 1944.
The motto of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, chairman of the Lodz ghetto Jewish council: "Our only path [to survival] is [through] work." Lodz, Poland, wartime.
An underground bunker, built by Jews in Warsaw in preparation for anti-Nazi resistance. This photograph shows cooking facilities in a bunker. Jews hid in bunkers while the Germans systematically destroyed the ghetto during the uprising. Warsaw, Poland, April 19–May 16, 1943.
Wartime portrait of Andrzej Klimowicz, Poland. Andrzej Klimowicz (1918–1996) aided and rescued Jews in Warsaw throughout the duration of the German occupation of Poland. He eventually became a member of the Council for Aid to Jews (codenamed “Żegota”), a clandestine organization that coordinated efforts to save Jews from Nazi persecution and murder. Under the auspices of Żegota, Andrzej played a role in providing Jews in Warsaw with forged identity papers and hiding places outside the walls of the…
October 29, 1941. On this date, German SS and police and Lithuanian police murdered 9,200 residents of the Kovno ghetto in Fort IX, Lithuania.
September 5, 1942. On this date, Germans issued this poster announcing the death penalty for anyone found aiding Jews who fled the Warsaw ghetto.
January 16, 1942. On this date, German authorities began the deportations of Jews and Roma from the Lodz ghetto to the Chelmno killing center.
The Holocaust (1933–1945) was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. The Holocaust era began in January 1933 when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. It ended in May 1945, when the Allied Powers defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. The Holocaust was a German initiative that took place throughout German- and Axis-controlled Europe. It affected nearly all of Europe’s Jewish…
Germany occupied the Polish city of Tarnow in 1939. Deportations from Tarnow began in June 1942, first to the Belzec killing center. Following the June deportations, the Germans forced the surviving Jews in Tarnow, as well as Jews from nearby town...
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