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Germans search Jews for weapons

German personnel on Grzybowska Street arrest and search Jewish men who supposedly hid weapons prior to the German occupation of Warsaw.  Warsaw, Poland, October-December 1939. This is one of a series of photos taken by Arthur Grimm, an SS propaganda company photographer, documenting the investigative work of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in occupied Warsaw for the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung. Although only some of the photos were published, it is likely that the incidents depicted in the BIZ were staged…

An emaciated woman selling Star of David armbands

An emaciated woman sells the compulsory Star of David armbands for Jews. In the background are concert posters; almost all are destroyed. Warsaw ghetto, Poland, September 19, 1941. This photograph was taken by Heinrich Joest, a German army sergeant during World War II. On September 19, 1941, he took 140 images of every aspect of life and death in the Warsaw ghetto. 

German policeman interrogates a Jewish man accused of smuggling

A German policeman interrogates a Jewish man accused of trying to smuggle a loaf of bread into the Warsaw ghetto. Warsaw, Poland, 1942-1943.

Soldiers of the Armia Krajowa

Soldiers of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) take cover behind a barricade during the Warsaw Polish uprising. During the uprising, the Home Army was supported by 2,500 soldiers from other resistance movements, such as the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ) and the communist People's Army (Armia Ludowa, AL). Only a quarter of the partisans had access to weapons, fighting against 25,000 German soldiers equipped with artillery, tanks, and air forces. Two of the three soldiers shown here…

Female Soldiers of the Polish Home Army

Soldiers of the Polish Home Army Women's Auxiliary Services, taken captive by the Germans in October 1944 as a result of the Warsaw Polish uprising. After the uprising ended on October 2, the Germans took as prisoners of war more than 11,000 soldiers of the Polish Home Army.

Janusz Korczak poses with children and staff in his orphanage

Janusz Korczak (center) and Sabina Lejzerowicz (to his right) pose with children and younger staff in Korczak's orphanage in Warsaw, circa 1930-1939. Even as they were deported to their deaths at Treblinka in 1942, Korczak and his staff stayed by their children.

Vladka Meed

Portrait by refugee artist Yonia Fain

Portrait of Janek Goldstein, in pencil, by Yonia Fain. Goldstein, a friend of the artist in Shanghai, was the son of Bernard Goldstein, who was active in the Bundist underground of the Warsaw ghetto and participated in the 1943 uprising. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]

SS and Police Leader Juergen Stroop interrogates two captured Jews

SS and Police Leader Juergen Stroop interrogates two Jews arrested during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943.

Juergen Stroop

Juergen Stroop (third from left), SS commander who crushed the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Warsaw, Poland, between April 19 and May 16, 1943.

Jozef Wilk

Jozef was the youngest of three children born to Roman Catholic parents in the town of Rzeszow in southern Poland. Jozef's father was a career officer in the Polish army. Jozef excelled in sports, and his favorite sport was gymnastics. He also studied the piano. 1933-39: Jozef was 14 when Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. The invasion affected him deeply. Brought up in a patriotic family, he had been taught to love and defend Poland. The Germans were bombing Warsaw, the Polish capital, but…

Flight and Rescue: War and Occupation Oral History Excerpts

Ghettos (Abridged Article) - Photograph

Ghettos in occupied Poland - ID Card/Oral History

Yitzhak Gitterman (left)

Yitzhak Gitterman (left), Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) director in Warsaw, meets with the representative of an Orthodox Jewish organization. Warsaw, Poland, date uncertain.

A captured Jewish resistance fighter

A captured Jewish resistance fighter who was forced out of his hidden bunker by German soldiers during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Warsaw, Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943.

Ben Kamm

Ben Kamm in uniform after the war. Ben escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and joined partisan units to resist the Nazis.  At the end of the war he discovered he was the sole survivor of his entire family.  

Gisha Galina Bursztyn: Maps

Born to Jewish parents in Poland, Gisha Galina Bursztyn moved to the city of Warsaw after she married. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Warsaw fell four weeks later, and a ghetto was set up in November 1940. During a massive roundup i...

Jozef Wilk: Maps

Born to Roman Catholic parents in Poland, Jozef Wilk was a teenager when Germany invaded in 1939. Jozef left for Warsaw and joined a special unit of the Polish resistance. During the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, Joz...

Szlamach Radoszynski: Maps

Szlamach Radoszynski was 27 years old when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. The following year, Szlamach and the rest of the Jews of Warsaw were forced into a ghetto. After the ghetto uprising in 1943, Szlamach was deported to Auschwitz a...

Postcard sent to Ruth Segal (front)

A postcard sent to Ruth Segal (Rys Berkowicz) care of the Jewish Community (JewCom) in Kobe, Japan. Family and friends in German-occupied Warsaw, Poland, sent the postcard on June 20, 1941. It bears stamps both from the Jewish council (Judenrat) in the Warsaw ghetto and from German censors. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]

Postcard sent to Ruth Segal (back)

Family and friends of Ruth Segal (Rys Berkowicz) sent this postcard to her in Kobe, Japan. They sent the postcard from Warsaw, in German-occupied Poland, on June 20, 1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]

Ghettos in occupied Poland

Nazi Propaganda - Historical Film Footage

Ghettos - Photograph