<< Previous | Displaying results 701-725 of 6707 for "" | Next >>
-
Warsaw district handbill announcing penalties for anyone caught assisting Jews
ArtifactOn 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…
-
Postcard sent to Ruth Segal (front)
DocumentA 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.]
-
Aaron A. Eiferman Letter: Page 1
DocumentFirst page of a letter from a US soldier describing "the living dead" and conditions his unit encountered in a subcamp of Dachau in April 1945.
-
Radiogram from Moritz Schoenberger on the "St. Louis"
DocumentOn May 25, 1939, artist Moritz Schoenberger sent this radiogram (a telegram sent by radio) from the ocean liner "St. Louis" during the voyage from Hamburg, Germany, to Havana, Cuba. On this voyage, the "St. Louis" carried over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. The telegram reads, in part, "Physically and spiritually recovered and invigorated most confident about reaching Havana Saturday. Money received. Many thanks. Kisses. Papa." Schoenberger's optimism proved unfounded. Cuban authorities…
-
Newspaper article "The Refugee Tragedy"
DocumentSan Francisco Chronicle newspaper article titled "The Refugee Tragedy." The article was based on an interview with Moses Beckelman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, an aid organization. It discussed the overcrowding of Polish and Lithuanian refugees stranded in Shanghai, Kobe (Japan), and Lisbon (Portugal), all stops en route to North and South America. The primary cause of this bottleneck was a lack of transit and entry visas, a result of most countries closing their borders to…
-
Notice of Gregor Wohlfahrt's execution
DocumentAuthorities in Berlin, Germany, sent this notice to Barbara Wohlfahrt, informing her of her husband Gregor's execution on the morning of December 7, 1939. Although he was physically unfit to serve in the armed forces, the Nazis tried Wohlfahrt for his religious opposition to military service. As a Jehovah's Witness, Wohlfahrt believed that military service violated the biblical commandment not to kill. On November 8, 1939, a military court condemned Wohlfahrt to beheading, a sentence carried out one month…
-
Hand-drawn plan of Westerbork transit camp
DocumentThe Dutch government established a camp at Westerbork to intern Jewish refugees who had entered the Netherlands illegally. This sketch of the Westerbork transit camp was made by a Jewish inmate who was able to emigrate to the United States. In early 1942, the German occupation authorities decided to enlarge Westerbork and convert it into a transit camp for Jews. The systematic concentration of Jews from the Netherlands in Westerbork began in July 1942. From Westerbork, Jews were deported to the killing…
-
German passport Issued to Erna "Sara" Schlesinger (inside)
DocumentGerman police authorities issued this passport to Erna "Sara" Schlesinger on July 8, 1939, in Berlin. This first page of the passport illustrates the German laws that facilitated the identification of Jews in Germany. From 1938, German regulations required that Jewish women with a first name of "non-Jewish" origin use the middle name "Sara" on all official documents. Jewish men had to add the name "Israel". The letter "J" (standing for "Jude," that is, the word "Jew" in German) was stamped in red on the…
-
German passport issued to Alice "Sara" Mayer (inside)
DocumentA German passport issued to Alice Mayer on February 24, 1939, in Bingen, Germany. Mayer's daughter, Ellen, is also listed on the passport. Both mother and daughter's names include the middle name "Sara." This middle name became a mandatory addition required by a law of August 17, 1938. Thereafter, all Jewish women in Germany with a first name of "non-Jewish" origin had to add "Sara" as a middle name on all official documents. Jewish men had to add the name "Israel". This enabled German officials to…
-
Simone Weil's kindergarten teacher certification
DocumentSimone Weil earned this diploma, which certified her to teach kindergarten in France, from the School of Social Work in Strasbourg in 1940. Weil assumed a false identity in late 1943 to facilitate her resistance activities as a member of the relief and rescue organization Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (Children's Aid Society; OSE). Among the papers documenting Weil's new identity was a forged version of this diploma bearing the name "Simone Werlin".
-
Teacher certification forged for Simone Weil
DocumentSimone Weil used this forged diploma and other false papers to document a new identity assumed in late 1943. As Simone Werlin, she could avoid arrest and change residence to facilitate her rescue of Jewish children as a member of the relief and rescue organization Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (Children's Aid Society; OSE). Weil had earned the diploma, which certified her to teach kindergarten in France, from the School of Social Work in Strasbourg in 1940. The director of the school willingly forged this…
-
Documentation for a false identity: Simone Weil
DocumentSimone Weil kept this blank identification card bearing her picture in case her cover as "Simone Werlin" were blown and she needed to establish a new false identity. Both resistance workers and sympathetic government employees provided her the necessary stamps and signatures. Such forged documents assisted Weil in her work rescuing Jewish children as a member of the relief and rescue organization Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (Children's Aid Society; OSE).
-
Simone Weil's falsified student card
DocumentAfter adopting a new identity in late 1943, Simone Weil falsified her student card from the year 1938-1939 to bear her assumed name, Simone Werlin. The card verified enrollment in the School of Social Work in Strasbourg. Using forged and falsified documents, Weil was able to move to Chateauroux, France, and establish an operation to rescue Jewish children as a member of the relief and rescue organization Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (Children's Aid Society; OSE).
-
Plan of the "St. Louis"
DocumentPlan of the two-propeller passenger liner the "St. Louis," showing cabins and room numbers. In 1939, this German ocean liner carried almost 1,000 Jewish refugees seeking temporary refuge in Cuba. It was forced to return to Europe after Cuba and then the United States refused to allow the refugees entry.
-
Permit for stay in Japan
DocumentMost Polish Jewish refugees stayed in Japan much longer than their 10-day transit visas allowed. Many feared the day when Japanese authorities would no longer extend their stay with permits like the one shown here. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
-
Permit for stay in Japan
DocumentJapanese authorities issued this "Permit for stay in Japan" to Ruth Segal (Rys Berkowicz). After several unsuccessful attempts to obtain visas for the United States, Ruth's father was able to secure a visa for her to go to New Zealand, in the British Commonwealth of Nations. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
-
Postcard sent to Ruth Segal (back)
DocumentFamily 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.]
-
Swedish protective document
DocumentProtective document issued to a Jewish woman by the Swedish embassy in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944. Such documents protected the bearer from immediate deportation by the Germans to the Auschwitz killing center in occupied Poland. The "W" in the lower left corner indicates that Raoul Wallenberg initialed the document.
-
Second telegram from the Chief Rabbi of Vilna asking for aid
DocumentA second RCA Radiogram telegram from Rabbi Grodzenski, Chief Rabbi of Vilna, to the Central Relief Committee in New York. He requests aid for refugees who have gathered in Vilna. The telegram says that more than 1,600 yeshiva students and their families from over 10 cities throughout Poland have fled to Vilna, where they remain in terrible living conditions. November 5, 1939. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
-
Certificate of Polish citizenship (inside)
DocumentMany refugees had difficulties replacing lost or invalidated personal identification documents. The certificate of Polish citizenship shown here was valid in place of a passport. A Polish Jewish refugee used this certificate to travel legally from Lithuania, through the Soviet Union, to Japan. It contains the Curacao notation needed to obtain Soviet and Japanese visas. The bearer of this certificate aimed to reach Palestine, but ended up spending most of the war in Calcutta, India, part of the British…
-
Page 2 of passport issued to Setty Sondheimer
DocumentSetty and Moritz Sondheimer and their two children fled Nazi Germany for Kovno, Lithuania, in 1934. There, Moritz opened a small factory manufacturing buttons and combs. This image shows page 2, containing an identification photograph, of a passport issued to Setty Sondheimer by the German Consulate in Kovno on January 29, 1938. With aid from Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara in obtaining Japanese transit visas, Setty and her family emigrated from Kovno in February 1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition…
-
Page 5 of passport issued to Setty Sondheimer
DocumentPage 5 of a passport issued to Setty Sondheimer by the German Consulate in Kovno on January 29, 1938. This page contains three visas: (1) visa for Kovno valid from August 27, 1940, until December 31, 1940 (2) a second visa for Kovno valid until June 30, 1941, and (3) first visa for Yokohama, Japan, valid from June 7, 1941, until June 30, 1942. Unable to emigrate from Japan, Setty remained there until she was able to emigrate to the United States in 1947. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and…
-
Page 12 of passport issued to Setty Sondheimer
DocumentTransit visa in a passport issued to Setty Sondheimer, a German citizen. This visa, issued on August 6, 1940, enabled her to travel through Japan en route to Surinam, Curacao, or other Dutch colonies in the Americas. These plans were disrupted when travel across the Pacific Ocean was forbidden following U.S. entry into World War II. Setty remained in Japan until she was able to emigrate to the United States in 1947. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
-
Suitcase label for Trans-Siberian Express
DocumentThe Soviet travel agency Intourist issued this type of luggage tag, showing a route map, to passengers on the Trans-Siberian Express. Some Jewish refugees traveled on the Trans-Siberian Express as they fled eastward. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
-
Postcard of Moscow
DocumentA Jewish refugee purchased this postcard of the Lenin Library during a stopover in Moscow. Soviet Union, 1940-1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
