<< Previous | Displaying results 251-300 of 1567 for "poland" | Next >>
German policemen search an elderly, religious Jew at gunpoint in German-occupied Poland, circa 1941.
German Order Police officers inspect members of Police Battalion 101 in Lodz after the German occupation of Poland, 1939–1943.
Coffins containing bodies of Jews killed in the Kielce pogrom. Poland, July 6, 1946. The mass violence of the Kielce pogrom drew on an entrenched local history of antisemitism–especially false allegations accusing Jews of using the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes (a charge known as a “blood libel”)–with the intent of discouraging the return of Jewish Holocaust survivors to Poland.
Civilians flee Warsaw following the German invasion of Poland. Hundreds of thousands of both Jewish refugees and non-Jewish refugees fled the advancing German army into eastern Poland, hoping that the Polish army would halt the German advance in the west. Many of the refugees fled without a specific destination in mind. They traveled on foot or by any available transport—cars, bicycles, carts, or trucks—clogging roads to the east. Most took only what they could carry.
July 4, 1946. On this date, there was a massacre of Jews in Kielce, Poland.
German troops occupied Lodz one week after Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. In early 1940, the Germans established a ghetto in a small area in the northeast section of the city.
White armband with a Star of David embroidered in blue thread, worn by Dina Offman from 1939 until 1941 while in the ghetto in Stopnica, Poland.
White armband with a Star of David embroidered in blue thread, worn by Dina Offman from 1939 until 1941 while in the ghetto in Stopnica, Poland.
Group portrait of the members of the Zionist pioneer youth group, Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa'ir Hachshara. Kalisz, Poland, May 1, 1935.
Portrait of a young Jewish girl, Lida Kleinman sitting in her room in Lacko, Poland, 1935. In January 1942, Lida was sent into hiding. She hid under false identities in Catholic orphanages until the end of the war.
German soldiers lead blindfolded Polish hostages to an execution site. Olkusz, Poland, July 16, 1940.
Bombing raid over the I.G. Farben Buna plant. Poland, August 1944.
Candles mark the railway tracks leading to the Auschwitz camp during the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. Poland, January 27, 2005.
View of the village of Chelmno. To the left of the church is the Schloss, one of two sites of the Chelmno camp. The Schloss, an old country estate, served as the reception and killing center for victims until it was demolished in April 1943. Chelmno, Poland, 1939–1943.
One of the many Jewish schools established by the Joint Distribution Committee in central and eastern Europe for children who had lost their parents during World War I. Rovno, Poland, after 1920.
Street scene in the Warsaw ghetto. The sign at left announces: "Soup in the courtyard, first floor, apt. 47." Warsaw, Poland, 1940-1941.
Yiddish folk poet and songwriter Mordecai Gebirtig was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1877. In 1940, he was forced to flee from German-occupied Krakow to nearby Lagiewniki. There, in October 1941, he wrote "Tolling Bells"—in which he envisions the end of persecution and occupation.
A Polish town lies in ruins following the German invasion of Poland, which began on September 1, 1939.
A pair of candlesticks, bought in Poland and used every Friday evening during observance of the Jewish Sabbath. Polish Jewish refugees fleeing the German invasion of Poland in 1939 carried these candlesticks with them to Vilna.
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…
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...
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...
Diagram showing "the web of communications" between Japanese diplomats and members of the Polish resistance in the Baltic states and Scandinavia. The "Konsulat japonski Kowno" refers to Sugihara. Despite its ties with Nazi Germany, Japan pursued its own course in foreign policy. After the Germans occupied Poland and the Netherlands, Japan continued relations with both the Polish and Dutch governments-in-exile in London. July 1940.
The German army occupied Krakow, Poland, in September 1939. In March 1941, the Germans ordered the establishment of a ghetto in Krakow. In this footage, Polish Jews are forced to move into the Krakow ghetto. They wear the required armbands, used to distinguish the Jewish population from the rest of the city's residents. By late 1941, there were some 18,000 Jews imprisoned in the Krakow ghetto.
The German army occupied Lodz, Poland, in September 1939. From early February 1940, Jews in Lodz were forced to move to a designated ghetto area, which was sealed on April 30, 1940. This German footage illustrates conditions during winter in the Lodz ghetto. Winter in the ghettos aggravated existing hardships, depleting already sparse supplies of food and fuel.
Women and children gather at the door of a soup kitchen maintained by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The text in Yiddish reads "The fortunate ones with full bowls." Zelechow, Poland, 1940.
While living in hiding on the Aryan side of Warsaw, Benjamin Miedzyrzecki (Ben Meed) returns to the site of the Warsaw ghetto, where he poses among the ruins. Warsaw, Poland, 1944.
Bernhardt Colberg, a member of Reserve Police Battalion 101, poses in front of its headquarters in the vicinity of Lodz in German-occupied Poland. The police battalions were units of the German Order Police who were deployed to German-occupied areas of Europe during World War II. Photo dated 1940–1941.
Members of the German Order Police stand guard over a group of Orthodox Jewish men, 1942. The men have been rounded-up either for forced labor or public humiliation. Krakow, in German-occupied Poland.
A member of the German Order Police raises a stick to beat a Jew who is loading his bundles onto a wagon during expulsion from the community of Sieradz in German-occupied Poland. Photo dated 1940–1942.
A member of the German Order Police Battalion 101 stands next to a sign marking the entrance to the Lodz ghetto in German-occupied Poland, 1940–1941. The German text of the sign reads: "Announcement: In accordance with a police order of February 8, 1940, all Germans and Poles are forbidden entry into the ghetto area."
Yiddish folk poet and songwriter Mordecai Gebirtig was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1877. In 1940, he was forced to flee from German-occupied Krakow to nearby Lagiewniki. There, in May 1941, he wrote "My Dream"—in which he dreams of peace and revenge. In March 1942 Gebirtig was forced into the Krakow ghetto, where he was killed in June 1942.
Gertruda was one of five children born to a poor family in the rural community of Zegrowek in western Poland. The Nowaks lived near Gertruda's grandparents. Like their parents, Sylwester and Joanna Nowak, the Nowak children were baptized in the Roman Catholic faith. 1933-39: As a young girl, Gertruda helped with chores around the house, and after school she looked after her younger brothers and sisters. She was 9 years old when the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Nazi troops reached Zegrowek…
A mass grave dug by Jewish forced laborers for the bodies of individuals murdered by the NKVD in Lvov prisons. The NKVD (Soviet secret police) murdered thousands of Ukrainian nationalists, as well as some Jews and Poles, before retreating from the Nazi invasion. The Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators then used the massacre as a pretext for anti-Jewish pogroms, claiming that the Jews had helped the secret police. Lvov, Poland, July 3, 1941.
Nazi Germany established the killing centers of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka as part of “Operation Reinhard,” the plan to murder all Jews in the General Government.
Mourners and local residents shovel dirt into the mass grave of the victims of the Kielce pogrom during the public burial.
Baruch was known by his family and friends as Buzek. He came from the east central Polish town of Kozienice. Kozienice was a popular vacation spot situated near lakes and a birch forest. Baruch's father worked in the lumber business. 1933-39: Baruch attended public school, and in the afternoons he also went to Jewish religious school. On Friday nights for the sabbath, Baruch would go to his grandparents' house, where his relatives would gather to visit with one another. Baruch would run to his grandfather…
Pesia, born Pesia Ander, was one of five children born to a Jewish family in the central Polish village of Nur. In 1929 Pesia married Shlomo Szczupakiewicz and they moved to his home town of Malkinia. A year later their first child, daughter Ida, was born. 1933-39: In September 1939, before the invading Germans reached Malkinia, Pesia fled with her family to the countryside. Exhausted, they returned to their house in Malkinia only a few weeks later. Shlomo then learned that a childhood friend had become a…
Helena was the eighth of 10 children born to a Jewish family in the town of Lesko. Her father was a landowner. When Helena was a young girl the family moved to nearby Orelec, where they had a summer home. As there were no schools in Orelec, Helena and her siblings continued attending school in Lesko. Later, Helena traveled three hours by train daily to attend the nearest high school, which was in Przemysl. 1933-39: The German army invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. By the beginning of October the…
Samson was raised by Jewish parents in Tarnopol. His father died when Samson was 13, and Samson went to work to help support his mother and four brothers and sisters. In October 1918 Samson married Kaethe Ert, and the couple moved to Hanover, Germany, where Samson worked as a traveling salesman. Their son Herbert was born in 1920. 1933-39: In 1938 Samson and Kaethe got their son an exit visa on America's Polish quota (since they were Polish citizens). Later that year, the Gestapo came to their door with…
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of all donors.