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Lucie Lind shopping in an open-air market in Lwów, Poland, sometime in the 1930s. Lucie was born into an affluent Jewish family on January 23, 1909. At the time, Lwów (Lemberg) was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Lucie was educated in Vienna. Before World War II, she was a housewife. Her first husband was a well-known artist throughout Europe. The couple’s daughter was born in 1936. Lucie’s fashionable clothes, hat, and gloves are typical for middle or upper class women living in Poland at the…
This portrait from around 1922 depicts three generations of the Menaker family. The hairstyles and clothing highlight the process of acculturation–adapting to and even adopting elements of the dominant, non-Jewish culture–in one Jewish family in the Lwów region. The older female relative wears a wig and a dress with long sleeves and a high collar. Orthodox Jewish women traditionally wore modest clothing and covered their hair with wigs or kerchiefs. By contrast, Szprinca (center) wears a dress with…
This 1935 portrait shows Samuel and Adela Shiber with three of their children—Salomon (left), Matylda (center), and Emanuel (right). The Shibers were a Jewish family from Lwów. Samuel owned a textile workshop in the city. Samuel and Adela spoke Yiddish at home, while the children spoke Polish among themselves. In this photo, there are no obvious markers of Jewish identity. The family wears clothing typical for middle or upper class families at the time. The children are dressed like most schoolchildren…
Students sit at their desks in a classroom at a Polish-language public elementary school in Lwów around 1930. In interwar Poland, Jewish children could attend public or private schools. The curriculum in these schools was based on a secular education, in contrast to the traditional heder where boys were schooled in Jewish texts and traditions. This particular school was located in the city’s predominantly Jewish neighborhood and almost all of the students were Jewish. Before attending this school,…
This prewar photo shows newly married Daniel and Laura (née Litwak) Schwarzwald enjoying a day on the beach in Zaleszczyki, Poland (today Zalishchyky, Ukraine). The Schwarzwalds were Jews from Lwów. They married in 1935 and lived in a fashionable Lwów district where Jews were a minority. Both Laura and Daniel pursued university educations and spoke Polish, Russian, German, and Yiddish. Daniel also spoke English. At the time of their marriage, Daniel was a successful businessman. He owned a lumber…
Between World War I and World War II, the multiethnic city of Lwów was in eastern Poland and home to one of the country’s largest Jewish communities. Jews made up about one-third of Lwów’s population, numbering around 100,000 people on the eve of World War II. The diversity of Lwów’s Jews was reflected in many aspects of their everyday lives. Most Jews in Lwów were multilingual and communicated in different languages, depending on the context. For example, many people spoke Yiddish at home,…
Between World War I and World War II, dozens of synagogues and prayer houses served the religious needs of Lwów’s diverse Jewish community. This postcard from around 1917 shows the Progressive Synagogue, also known as the Temple, in Lwów. Built in the 1840s and originally named the German-Israelite Prayer House, it served the city’s progressive Jewish community. From 1904, the synagogue’s rabbi regularly preached in Polish. The Nazis destroyed the synagogue in 1941.
Explore the history of Jews in Ukraine before, during, and after the Holocaust through articles, personal stories, historical photographs, artifacts, maps, and more.
The Auschwitz camp system, located in German-occupied Poland, was a complex of 3 camps, including a killing center. Learn about the history of Auschwitz.
How involved in the Holocaust were German professionals and civil leaders? What were some of the motivations and pressures that led to a wide range of behavior? What indeed was the range of behavior, from complying to perpetrating? Explore...
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The surprise attack marked a turning point in the history of World War II and the Holocaust.
The July 20, 1944, plot was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Learn more about the July 20 plot, including some of the motivations of the participants.
The leaders of Nazi Germany, a modern, educated society, aimed to destroy millions of men, women, and children because of their Jewish identity. Understanding this process may help us to better understand the condit...
Karl was born in the small town of Bad Zwishenahn in northern Germany. When he was 2, his family moved to the port of Bremerhaven. His father was a sailor and his mother became a nurse in a local hospital. After his father died, Karl continued to live with his mother. Karl was 20 when he began training as a deacon at his parish church. 1933-39: Karl was 26 when his jealous lover denounced him and he was arrested at his house under Paragraph 175. Paragraph 175 was a statute of the German criminal code that…
Key dates associated with Hajj Amin al-Husayni, former Mufti of Jerusalem who participated in a pro-Axis coup in Iraq in 1941. Explore further
Survivors of the Holocaust faced huge obstacles in rebuilding their lives. Learn about the challenges they faced in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party adapted, manipulated, and radicalized the unfounded belief in the existence of an "Aryan race." Learn about the term Aryan.
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi politician, propagandist, and radical antisemite, was Reich Minister for Propaganda and Public Enlightenment from 1933 until 1945.
Learn about early concentration camps the Nazi regime established in Germany, and the expansion of the camp system during the Holocaust and World War II.
Chart with the title "Die Nürnberger Gesetze" [Nuremberg Race Laws]. In the fall of 1935, German Jews lost their citizenship according to the definitions posed in these new regulations. Only "full" Germans were entitled to the full protection of the law. This chart was used to aid Germans in understanding the laws. White circles represent "Aryan" Germans, black circles represent Jews, and partially shaded circles represent “mixed raced” individuals. The chart has columns explaining the…
Explore a timeline of key events related to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times.
Artist Esther Lurie documented life in the Kovno ghetto for its secret archives. Learn about her watercolors and sketches, the majority of which have never been found.
Often referred to as the “eastern front,” the German-Soviet theater of war was the largest and deadliest of World War II. Learn more about the background and key events.
The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. Learn more about the Axis powers in WW2.
The Battle of the Bulge was a failed German counter-offensive against the Allied armies. Learn more about the Battle of the Bulge and its impact on WWII.
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