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Lilly Appelbaum was born in Antwerp, Belgium to Jewish parents, Israel and Justine. Lilly's parents separated before she was born. Her father immigrated to the United States. Lilly had two older siblings, Leon (born 1927) and Maria (born 1925). She lived with her maternal grandparents in Antwerp. During the week, her mother lived in Brussels, where she operated a small workshop that made raincoats. 1933-39: Lilly and her grandparents lived in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp. She went to a…
In April 1944, after the German occupation of Hungary, Agi, her mother, six-year-old brother, and aunt were forced into the Munkacs ghetto. Before deportation to Auschwitz, Agi was forced to work in the ghetto's brick factory. At Auschwitz, Agi, then 14 years old, was chosen as part of a Sonderkommando. This forced-labor detachment had to sort the clothing and possessions of inmates and victims at Auschwitz. In January 1945, Agi and other prisoners were forced on a death march from Auschwitz. She was…
SS officer Karl Höcker salutes in front of an array of wreaths during a military funeral near Auschwitz. The original caption for the photograph reads "Beisetzung von SS Kameraden nach einem Terrorangriff." (Burying our SS comrades from a terror attack.) Pictured in the background are Josef Kramer and Karl Moeckel.This image shows the aftermath of the September 13, 1944, bombing of IG Farben in which 15 SS men died in the SS residential blocks and 28 were seriously wounded.
Leo was one of two children born to Jewish parents in the Moravian capital of Brno. When Leo was a child his father died, and Leo and his sister, Edita, were raised by their German-born mother. On November 27, 1931, Leo graduated with a law degree from Brno University. 1933-39: After courting Hilda Krakauerova, a dental technician, Leo married her on December 23, 1935. Leo served as a district judge in Brno and in the town of Postejov, and in 1938 he was appointed judge and secretary to the Moravian…
Prewar photo of Ala Gertner. Bedzin, Poland, 1930s. After being deported to Auschwitz, Ala Gertner took fate into her own hands. Upon arrival, she was assigned to forced labor at a nearby armaments factory. After learning that they were going to be killed, Gertner, along with fellow female prisoners, began smuggling gunpowder and explosives from the factory with plans to destroy one of the crematoriums. During the uprising in October 1944, the prisoners killed three guards. They also set fire to…
May 15-July 9, 1944. On this date, Hungarian officials (under guidance from the German SS) deported some 440,000 Hungarian Jews.
Page from Karl Höcker's album, with the caption "Yuletime, 1944." The photographs show Karl Höcker lighting the candles on the Yule tree. 1944.
Sam was the eldest of five children born to Jewish parents in Kozienice, a town in east central Poland. His father owned a shoe factory and his mother cared for the children and the home. Kozienice had a thriving Jewish community that made up about half of the town's population. 1933–39: On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland. That morning the Spiegels heard an air raid siren blaring and quickly left their house. Fifteen minutes later a bomb struck the building. Sam was just 17 years old.…
Cecilie was the youngest of six children born to a religious Jewish family in the Czechoslovakian town of Yasinya. Her father, who was from Poland, taught private lessons in math and German. The family owned a small grocery store, which Cecilie's mother managed. 1933-39: Cecilie's father died in 1934 when she was 9. In March 1939 Hungary, which was sympathetic to Nazi Germany, annexed the area of Czechoslovakia where they lived. One day, Cecilie arrived home to find her mother and sister had been arrested…
Peter and his twin brother, Thomas, were the youngest of three children born to an observant Jewish family. They lived in Pecs, an industrial center where goods such as bricks and ceramics were produced. Peter's father owned a prosperous business selling accessories and parts for cars, motorcycles and bicycles. He was also a regional sales representative for Ford automobiles. 1933-39: A German nanny took care of Peter, Thomas, and their older sister. She taught them German and they became quite fluent.…
Julo was born to a Jewish family in the city of Stettin in northeastern Germany. From an early age Julo showed an interest in art; at 6 he had collected more than 3,000 pictures. His family hoped he would become a businessman, but his interest in painting absorbed all his energy. In 1926 he graduated from art school and by 1931 he secured his first commission in Duesseldorf. 1933-39: Until the Nazis came to power in 1933, Julo was a highly regarded artist. The Nazis' strict interpretation of art, however,…
Israel was born into a religious Hasidic family who hoped he would become a rabbi. But Israel rebelled and apprenticed himself to a printer when he was 16. He read constantly, deepening his sympathy with the workers' struggle, and he soon began to write his own revolutionary songs. His first book of poems, The Red Agenda, was warmly received. 1933-39: In 1933, the year Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Israel moved to Paris. But the city was wracked by unemployment, and Jewish immigrants were in…
Ernest's father was a professional musician who toured with a Roma ("Gypsy") band and was often away for several months at a time. At home in Teplice-Sanov, a town in the Sudetenland near the Czech-German border, Ernest's mother took care of Ernest and Elizabeth, his younger sister, and the children's invalid grandmother. Ernest's uncles, Rudolf and Viktor, helped the family. 1933-39: In Teplice-Sanov Ernest was expelled from secondary school for being Jewish—his Uncle Viktor then helped to get him into…
Thomas Buergenthal was born in May 1934 in the town of Ľubochňa, Czechoslovakia. His parents, Mundek and Gerda, were Jews who had fled the Nazi rise to power in Germany. In Ľubochňa, Mundek ran a hotel that welcomed other refugees and exiles fleeing Nazi persecution. 1933-39: In 1938-1939, Nazi Germany dismantled the country of Czechoslovakia and created the satellite state of Slovakia. As a result, Thomas and his family fled from Slovakia to neighboring Poland. They hoped eventually to immigrate to…
Benjamin and his younger brother Zigmush were born to Jewish parents in the industrial city of Lodz. Lodz was Poland's second biggest city before the war, and one-third of its inhabitants were Jewish. Benjamin's father, Moshe, owned a candle factory, and his mother, Brona, was a nurse. 1933-39: In 1939, as Benjamin began the third grade, the Germans occupied Lodz. Jews were forbidden to ride buses, and were ordered to wear yellow stars. Because the Germans sometimes grabbed Jews off the streets for forced…
The elder of two sons of religious German-Jewish parents, Siegfried grew up in the city of Frankfurt. Upon completing his education, he became a certified public accountant in Frankfurt. In his free time he worked as a freelance music critic. While on a vacation in 1932 on the North Sea island of Norderney, he met Herta Katz, a young woman with whom he quickly fell in love. 1933-39: The Nazis had fired Siegfried from his government job because he was Jewish. Although his mother opposed the match,…
Magda was the only daughter in a family of five children. Her town of Michalovce, in eastern Slovakia, was an agricultural trade center and it had a large Jewish population. Magda's father taught Jewish history in local Jewish schools. Magda grew up learning Hebrew songs and listening to stories about Jewish history. 1933-39: It's Magda's nature to work with people and to help them work together. In Michalovce she studied to become a kindergarten teacher, and worked to establish a new chapter of the…
Aranka was the youngest of 10 children born to Jewish parents living in the highlands of Slovakia. While visiting Budapest to attend her sister's marriage, she was introduced to Jeno Muhlrad, a pharmacist. They were married and the couple moved in with Jeno's father and sisters who lived in Ujpest, a suburb of Budapest. Aranka had two children--Eva, born in 1924, and Andras, born six years later. 1933-39: Aranka's husband has leased his own pharmacy in downtown Ujpest so they can finally afford to move…
Lifcia and her brother and two sisters were born to religious Zionist parents in Radom, a major center of Polish leather production. The city had more than 100 tanneries and shoe factories. Lifcia's father worked as a leather broker, matching manufacturers with clients who sought specific types of leather. The Najman family lived in a two-room apartment in the center of town. 1933-39: At secondary school, Lifcia learned math, science, Polish language, history, and German. Three times a week she attended a…
Josef was one of seven children born to a Jewish family in the Czechoslovakian village of Hvozdnice. After graduating from school, Josef worked as a salesman in Vienna. In 1912 he married Ida Kohn, and the couple had a son before he left to fight for Austria in World War I. After the war, they had a daughter. 1933-39: Because of the economic depression of the 1930s, it was difficult for Josef to make a living in his wholesale shoe business. In 1938 the Germans annexed Austria [the Anschluss], and soon…
May 15-18, 1944. On this date, German authorities deported over 7,000 Jews from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Rosa was one of 14 children born to religious Jewish parents in the village of Yasinya at a time when it was known as Korosmezo and was part of Hungary. During World War I, she married Michael von Hoppen Waldhorn, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army who was based near Yasinya. During the 1920s they moved to Paris, where they raised three children. 1933-39: The Waldhorn family's life in Paris was very different from their life in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Rosa's husband made a good living, and he…
Rosalia was raised by Jewish parents in the small, predominantly Jewish industrial city of Tulchin in southwestern Ukraine. She married Aaron Schatz, and together they raised four children in the city of Odessa. In 1919, when her family was grown, Rosalia and her daughter Ludmilla immigrated via Romania to France after Aaron was killed during the Russian civil war. 1933-39: Rosalia settled in Bagneux, a suburb of Paris. She spoke only Russian and Yiddish and found Paris to be a different world from the…
Maria was born to a poor family in the industrial town of Jaworzno, not far from Krakow, in southwestern Poland. Both of Maria's parents worked. Like her parents, Maria was baptized in the Roman Catholic faith. 1933-39: Maria took care of the house when her parents were working. She was 11 years old when the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. German troops reached Jaworzno that same month. Jaworzno was in an area of Poland that became formally annexed to Germany. 1940-44: The Germans arrested…
Alida was the oldest of eight children. Her parents, religious Jews, owned a textile business in the small town of Vries. As a teenager, Alida helped her family sell textiles to the local farmers, carrying the goods in a suitcase attached to the handlebars of her bicycle. She married Samuel Wijnberg, and the couple had three sons and a daughter. 1933-39: The Wijnbergs owned and lived in a kosher hotel in the town of Zwolle. It was the only kosher hotel in the region, so many Jewish businessmen and cattle…
Nadine was the daughter of immigrant Jewish parents. Her Russian-born mother settled in France following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Nadine was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, a city on the outskirts of Paris known for its automobile factories. She was fluent in Russian and French. 1933-39: Nadine attended elementary school in Paris. Her mother, Ludmilla, taught piano, and her Russian grandmother, Rosalia, lived with them. After France declared war on Germany in September 1939, Nadine's mother moved the…
Hana was born to a Jewish family in Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia. Her father, a metalsmith, made pipes, spouts and gutters for construction companies. Because her mother was frail, Hana was raised by her father and grandmother. She attended a Jewish school through grade five, and later went to business school. 1933-39: In 1933 Hana read about the harrowing treatment of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition and told her grandmother, "Aren't we fortunate that we live in the 20th century in…
The only child of a cosmopolitan Hungarian Jewish couple, Eva grew up in a city on the border between Romania and Hungary. Nearly one-fifth of the city's population was Jewish. Eva was a small child when her parents, Agi and Bela, divorced, and she went to live with her grandparents. 1933-39: After the divorce, Eva saw little of her mother, who remarried and moved to Budapest. She also rarely saw her father, who lived on the other side of the city. Eva lived with her grandmother and grandfather near the…
Alfred was the fifth of six children born to Jewish parents in a small town in Moravia, where his father ran a dry-goods and clothing store. The Krakauers spoke both Czech and German at home. In 1929 and 1930, after graduating from secondary school, Alfred served in the Czechoslovakian army. He enjoyed skiing and also played soccer for the Maccabi Jewish team. 1933-39: Alfred graduated in 1934 from Prague's Industrial School for Art. He became a graphic artist and decided to remain in Prague because of…
SS female auxiliaries (Helferinnen) run down a ramp in Solahütte to the music of an accordion. From Karl Höcker's photograph album, which includes both documentation of official visits and ceremonies at Auschwitz as well as more personal photographs depicting the many social activities that he and other members of the Auschwitz camp staff enjoyed. These rare images show Nazis singing, hunting, and even trimming a Christmas tree. They provide a chilling contrast to the photographs of thousands of…
An 18-month-old Jewish boy, Chaim Leib, who was murdered at the Auschwitz killing center in occupied Poland. Bukovina, Romania, 1942.
Forced labor in a workshop in the Monowitz camp, part of the Auschwitz camp complex. Poland, between 1941 and January 1945.
In Frankfurt, Ruth's family faced intensifying anti-Jewish measures; her father's business was taken over and Ruth's Jewish school was closed. In April 1943, Ruth and her family were deported to Auschwitz. Ruth was selected for forced labor and assigned to work on road repairs. She also worked in the "Kanada" unit, sorting possessions brought into the camp. In November 1944, Ruth was transferred to the Ravensbrueck camp system, in Germany. She was liberated in May 1945, during a death march from the…
SS female auxiliaries show with mock sadness that they have finished eating their blueberries, July 22, 1944. From the Hoecker Album of 116 photographs taken during the last six months of Auschwitz, between June 1944 and January 1945.
Kato was born to Jewish parents in Smolnik, a small village in eastern Czechoslovakia. While still a young child, she moved with her parents and brother Theodore to Sighet, Romania. There in the Carpathian mountains, her father ran a lumber business that exported wood to Germany and Czechoslovakia. 1933–39: In the 1930s, the popular appeal of antisemitism and fascism increased in Romania. Leaders of the Iron Guard, the militant and violent Romanian fascist party, publicly proclaimed their support for…
Beno was the oldest of three children in a Jewish family. His mother, originally from Austria, came to Czechoslovakia after World War I. Beno's father, a Swedish Jew, arrived there in search of work and became a successful merchant. The German-speaking Helmer home was frequently full of guests. Every day some students from the local rabbinical academy were invited to join the family for a meal. 1933-39: Beno's parents sent him to Budapest to attend high school. Later, because of his talent with languages,…
Ludmilla was one of four children born to Jewish parents in a small industrial city in southwestern Ukraine when the area was part of Tsarist Russia. Ludmilla grew up in Odessa, but she and her mother left in 1919 when Ludmilla's father was killed during the Russian civil war. Ludmilla and her mother emigrated to France and settled near Paris. Ludmilla married, and gave birth to a daughter in 1930. 1933-39: With her knowledge of Russian, French and German, Ludmilla felt comfortable in cosmopolitan Paris.…
Max was born to a Jewish family in Amsterdam. He lived in a working-class district occupied by many diamond polishers, of which his father was one. In the 1920s and 30s Amsterdam was a cosmopolitan city with a diverse population. Though his father hoped Max would follow him in the diamond trade, Max dreamed of becoming an architect. 1933-39: Max's happiest years were with close friends in school. His father encouraged him to learn by bringing home newspapers to help his English. After 1933 German Jews…
Pinchas was one of 16 children born to a Jewish family. Only nine of the Galperin children lived to adulthood. Pinchas' father worked as a typesetter for a Jewish newspaper and his mother ran a small grocery store. After World War I, Pinchas married Sara Bernstein and the couple moved to Siauliai, Lithuania, where they raised three children. 1933-39: Pinchas and Sara owned and ran a dairy store where they sold milk, butter and cheese that they bought from local farmers. Every morning they would rise early…
Alice, born Alice Edelstein, was the youngest of two children raised in a Jewish family in the Bohemian village of Hostoun, near Prague. Shortly after Alice was born, her father moved the family to Vienna. There, Alice's father owned a wholesale shoe business. As a child, Alice attended public school and also received a religious education. 1933-39: After graduating from business school, Alice had a hard time finding a job because of the economic depression in Austria. In 1936 her father let her work in…
The fourth of five children, Kato was born to a Jewish family who owned a successful furniture store and lumberyard in Ujpest, five miles from Budapest. As a young girl, Kato enjoyed singing and playing the violin in her family "orchestra" in their large home. She was also athletic, and loved to swim, bicycle and play tennis. Best of all, Kato enjoyed rowing on the Danube with her friends. 1933-39: Newly married, Kato moved to Zagyvapalfalva, a town northeast of Budapest with only five or six Jewish…
Born to Catholic parents, Wladyslaw attended schools in Warsaw and earned a degree in survey engineering in Moscow in 1914. After fighting in World War I, he commanded a horse artillery division in Warsaw, worked for Poland's Military Geographic Institute, and taught topography courses. He started a family in 1925, and after he retired from the army in 1929 he founded a surveying company. 1933-39: When war with Germany became imminent in the summer of 1939, Wladyslaw volunteered to fight but was rejected…
Michal was one of two children born to Catholic parents living in Siedlce, a large town some 65 miles east of Warsaw. Michal's father was an intelligence officer in the Polish army. Because his duty station frequently changed, the family lived in several towns along the Polish-Soviet border. As a child, Michal enjoyed photography and was active in the boy scouts. 1933-39: Michal's family was living in Wilejka, a town near Vilna, when the Germans attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. The Soviet army…
The younger of two girls, Lore was born to Jewish parents in a village close to the Belgian border. The Heumanns lived above their general store. Across the street lived Lore's grandfather, who kept horses and cows in his large barn. When Lore was a year old, her family moved to the city of Lippstadt. The Lippe River flowed beyond the large garden in back of their house. 1933-39: When Lore was 6, her family moved to the nearby city of Bielefeld, where she entered public school. A year later, she and her…
Elias was born in a small town in the hill country of northeastern Slovakia. His family was Jewish, and he grew up in a religious home in which both Yiddish and Hungarian were spoken. His father was a peddler and his mother ran a small general store. Besides attending public schools, Elias received a formal Jewish education and attended Medzilaborce's rabbinical academy. 1933-39: The townspeople were mostly Jewish and worried about Nazi Germany. The German annexation of Austria in March 1938 alarmed them.…
Helene, called Herta, was born to a Russian-Jewish father and a German-Jewish mother in a town on the Main River, near Frankfurt. Her father had immigrated to Germany from Russia in 1890. Her mother had automatically taken on her husband's Russian citizenship when she married. In 1914 Russia and Germany went to war, and Russians living in Germany were considered "enemy aliens." 1933-39: Herta married Siegfried Wohlfarth in 1933 and could change from being "stateless" to taking on his German citizenship.…
Renate, her twin brother, Rene, and their German-Jewish parents lived in Prague. Shortly before the twins were born, Renate's parents had fled Dresden, Germany, to escape the Nazi government's policies against Jews. Before leaving Germany to live in Czechoslovakia, Renate's father, Herbert, worked in the import-export business. Her mother, Ita, was an accountant. 1933-39: Renate's family lived in a six-story apartment building along the #22 trolley line in Prague. A long, steep flight of stairs led up to…
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