Betty Leiter Lauchheimer

Betty was one of 14 children born to a religious Jewish family in Aufhausen, a village in southwestern Germany. Her father was a successful cattle dealer in the area. On May 8, 1903, at age 20, Betty married Max Lauchheimer, a cattle merchant and kosher butcher. They lived in a large house by an orchard in the village of Jebenhausen. Betty and Max had two children, Regina and Karl. 1933-39: In late 1938 Betty and Max were visiting their daughter in Kippenheim when police arrested Max and their son-in-law.…

Wilhelm Edelstein

Wilhelm was the oldest of two children in a Jewish family living in the Habsburg capital of Vienna. Shortly after Wilhelm was born, World War I broke out. Because of food shortages, Wilhelm and his mother left for her hometown of Hostoun, near Prague. After the war they returned to Vienna where his father had remained to run his shoe business. As a young man, Wilhelm worked for his father. 1933-39: In March 1938 Germany annexed Austria. Soon after, the Germans arrested Wilhelm because he was a Jew dating…

Channah Mazansky-Zaidel

Channah was one of six children born to a Jewish family. In 1914, a year after her father died, the family fled during World War I to Russia. After the war they returned to Lithuania and settled in the village of Pampenai in a house owned by Channah's grandparents. When Channah's three oldest siblings moved to South Africa in the 1920s, Channah helped support the family by sewing. 1933-39: Channah was working as a seamstress in Pampenai when, in the mid 1930s, she met and married Channoch Zaidel. The…

Sara Galperin

Sara, born Sara Bernstein, was one of six children in a Jewish family in the Lithuanian village of Karchai. Her father was a farmer. Sara attended secondary school in Jonava and in 1920 she moved to Siauliai, where she met and married Pinchas Galperin. The couple owned and ran a dairy store, selling butter, milk and cheese. They had three children--two sons and a daughter. 1933-39: In addition to running the family store and rising early every morning to buy dairy products from the local farmers, Sara was…

Nesse Galperin

Nesse was born to an observant Jewish family in Siauliai, known in Yiddish as Shavl. Her parents owned a store that sold dairy products. The city was home to a vibrant Jewish community of almost 10,000 people. It had over a dozen synagogues and was renowned for its impressive cultural and social organizations. 1933–39: Nesse's family was very religious and observed all the Jewish laws. She attended Hebrew school and was raised in a loving household, where the values of community and caring always were…

Alexander Bernstein

Alexander was one of six children born to a Jewish family in the Lithuanian village of Karchai. His father was a farmer. In nearby Janova, Alexander attended public school and also studied Hebrew and Jewish history in a religious school. In 1925 Alexander moved to Siauliai to attend secondary school. He lived there with his older sister. 1933-39: Alexander enrolled in university in Kovno, and entered the pharmacology department. After completing his degree, he returned to Siauliai and took a job in a…

Rachel Lea Galperin

Rachel, born Rachel Karpus, was born to a Jewish family in the northeastern Polish city of Vilna. At the age of 16, Rachel married Reuven Galperin, a typesetter for a Jewish newspaper in the city, and the couple subsequently had 16 children. Only nine of the children lived to the 1930s. 1933-39: In addition to caring for her children, Rachel also operated a small grocery on Nowigorod Street. In 1938 Rachel's husband died. One year later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and 17 days after that…

Otto-Karl Gruenbaum

Born to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Otto grew up in a city well known for its musical tradition. The younger of two children, Otto began studying the piano at age 10. After entering the Vienna Conservatory of Music, he gave his first concert at age 14. Encouraged by Maestro Bruno Walter, he hoped to become a conductor and concert pianist. 1933-39: After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, Otto was kicked out of the Vienna Conservatory. One night, two men ordered him to go with them to a…

Leo Bretholz

Leo was the oldest child and only son of Polish immigrants in Vienna. His father, a tailor and amateur Yiddish actor, died of an illness in 1930 when Leo was 9. His mother supported the family by working as an embroiderer; Leo helped out by looking after his two younger sisters. They lived in one of Vienna's large Jewish districts on the east side of the Danube Canal. 1933-39: Anti-Jewish sentiment escalated after Germany annexed Austria in 1938. Jewish men, including some of Leo's uncles and neighbors,…

Onti Lazar: Maps

Gertruda Nowak: Maps

Gertruda Nowak was born to a Roman Catholic family in Poland. The Germans invaded her country on September 1, 1939. Gertruda's father was later accused of working for the Polish underground and taken away. The Germans then came for the rest of the...

Chaya Szabasson Rubinstein: Maps

Chaya Szabasson Rubinstein was living with her family in Kozienice, Poland, when German troops invaded in September 1939. Within weeks, the Jewish section of town was declared a ghetto. In 1942, Chaya was deported along with her husband, daughter, a...

Hersh Gordon: Maps

Hersh Gordon was born to a Jewish family in Kovno, Lithuania in 1925. After Germany occupied the city in 1941, Kovno's Jews were forced into a ghetto. In 1944, Hersh was deported to Auschwitz and then Dachau. He immigrated to the United States aft...

Guta Blass Weintraub: Maps

Guta Blass Weintraub was born to Jewish parents in Lodz, Poland. Not long after Guta entered secondary school, the Germans invaded Poland. Guta was forced to work in labor camps until 1944, when she was deported to the Majowka camp. From there, sh...

Aaron Lejzerowicz: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Poland, Aaron Lejzerowicz was endangered by the German invasions of Poland and the USSR. These maps offer a small glimpse of German military activity over the course of World War II—events w...

Eva Heyman: Maps

Eva was born to Jewish parents and grew up in a city on the border between Romania and Hungary. On March 19, 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and Eva was soon forced into a ghetto. She was later deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed at the a...

Eugeniusz Rozenblum: Maps

Eugeniusz Rozenblum was born to Jewish parents in Lodz, Poland. The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939 and in 1940 they forced the Jews of Lodz into a ghetto. In 1944, Eugeniusz was taken to Auschwitz and later to the Dachau camp. Out of the 7...

Chuna Grynbaum: Maps

Chuna Grynbaum was born to Jewish parents in Starachowice, Poland in 1928. When he was 13 years old, Chuna was sent to forced labor at a munitions factory. In 1943, he attempted to escape with his sister, Faiga. Faiga...

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...

Jeno Brieger: Maps

Jeno Brieger was born to a Jewish family in northeastern Hungary. The Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. Jeno was forced into a ghetto and then deported to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberate...

Joseph Gani: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Preveza, Joseph Gani was endangered by the German occupation of Greece. In March 1944, the Nazis deported the Jews of Preveza to Auschwitz. Joseph was killed several months later, at the age of 18. These maps add geograp...

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...

Judith Gabriel Dichter: Maps

Judith Gabriel Dichter was living in Vienna when Germany annexed Austria in 1938. A Jew, she was later deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. On September 19, 1942, she was deported to Maly Trostin...

Lidia Lebowitz: Maps

Lidia Lebowitz was 10 years old when Germany occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. A month later, Lidia and her parents were evicted from their home. They were among the some 15,000 Jews forced into a ghetto in the town of Sátoraljaújhely. In May an...

Max Rosenblat: Maps

Max Rosenblat was only two months old when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. The Germans occupied Radom and evicted all the Jews from the street where the Rosenblats lived. Max and his parents lived in a shack in a ghetto until August 1942, when the...

Yitzhak (Irving) Balsam: Maps

Yitzhak Balsam was just under 15 years old when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Like other Jewish men in Praszka, he was forced to build roads outside of town. Yitzhak was later deported to several camps, including Auschwitz, and was imp...

Zigmond Adler: Maps

Zigmond Adler was three years old when Germany occupied Belgium in May 1940. Zigmond, whose mother was deceased, went to live with his aunt and uncle after the Germans deported his father. With the help of Catholic friends, Zigmond and his relativ...

Sophie Weisz: Maps

Sophie Weisz was 13 years old when Hungary annexed the region where she lived in Romania in 1940. By mid-1941, Hungary had joined the German forces. Sophie and her Jewish family were forced into the Oradea ghetto in May 1944, and from there deport...

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...

Tonie Frederika Kaufmann Soep: Maps

Moses Rechnitz: Maps

Moses Rechnitz was born to Jewish parents in the Polish town of Bedzin on June 3, 1923. Moses was 16 years old when German troops invaded Poland in September 1939. By 1941, he was a slave laborer on a German railroad construction project outside o...

Moise Gani: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Preveza, Moise Gani was endangered by the German occupation of Greece. In March 1944, the Nazis deported the Jews of Preveza to Auschwitz. Albert was killed several months later, at the ag...

Meyer (Max) Rodriguez Garcia: Maps

Meyer (Max) Rodriguez Garcia was born to a Jewish family in Amsterdam. Max was nearly 16 years old when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. He went into hiding in early 1943, but was caught by June and deported to Auschwitz in German-occu...

Ruth Freund Reiser: Maps

Ruth Freund Reiser was born to Jewish parents in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She was 13 years old when Germany occupied Prague in March 1939. Five years later, Ruth was deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto to Auschwitz. She was later deported to th...

Siegfried Wohlfarth: Maps

Siegfried Wohlfarth was raised in a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany. Siegfried and his wife moved to Amsterdam after the Nazi rise to power in 1933, but Germany occupied the Netherlands seven years later. Siegfried was deported to Auschwitz in...

Rena Gani: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Preveza, Rena Gani was endangered by the German occupation of Greece. In March 1944, the Nazis deported the Jews of Preveza to Auschwitz. Rena was later sent to the Ravensbrück camp and was liberated during a death march...

Albert Gani: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Preveza, Albert Gani was endangered by the German occupation of Greece. In March 1944, the Nazis deported the Jews of Preveza to Auschwitz. Albert was killed several months later, at the age...

Rémy Dumoncel: Maps

Remy Dumoncel was born to Catholic parents in Paris, France. In 1935, he became the mayor of Avon, a town southeast of Paris. Germany occupied Avon after defeating France in June 1940. Remy resolved to remain mayor. He became active in a resistanc...

Japanese American Relocation: Photographs

Displaced children in Kloster Indersdorf

Oneg Shabbat archive

The Oneg Shabbat underground archive was the secret archive of the Warsaw ghetto. 

Nazi symbols of hate

A key part of Nazi racist ideology was to define the enemy and identify those who posed a threat to the so-called “Aryan” race. Learn about some of the symbols, terms, and means the Nazis used to communicate their message.

Eugenics

Eugenics, or “racial hygiene” in the German context, was a scientific movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eugenic theories provided the basis for the Nazi compulsory sterilization program and un...

Pages from scrapbooks documenting the German occupation of Denmark

Jewish communities in North Africa

North African Jews did not constitute a single community before or during World War II but, rather, were a diverse population of roughly 500,000, divided between the present-day countries of the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya...

Camps in North Africa

In Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and French West Africa, French collaborationist Vichy authorities established a network of different types of camps: penal camps, labor camps, and internment camps.  These camps included Jewish and non-Jewish European...

Photographer Yevgeny Khaldei

Photographer and renowned photojournalist Yevgeny Khaldei covered the events of World War II from Moscow to Berlin. Explore some of his images.

Occupation of Poland

The German occupation of Poland was exceptionally brutal. After defeating the Polish army in September 1939, German authorities ruthlessly suppressed the Poles. German policy sought to destroy the Polish nation and culture and exploit the Poles fo...

Systematic killing of Germans with disabilities

The Holocaust and Genocide

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.