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Learn more about Frank Bleichman, a Polish partisan who resisted and fought against the Nazis during World War II.
The Nazis occupied Zdziecioł (Zhetel), Poland in 1941. Learn more about the city and ghetto during World War II.
Itka was raised in a Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish family in Sokolow Podlaski, a manufacturing town in central Poland with a large Jewish population of about 5,000. Itka came from a poor family. After completing her public schooling in Sokolow Podlaski at the age of 14, she began to work. 1933-39: Itka was a young woman, unmarried and living with her parents when war between Germany and Poland broke out on September 1, 1939. German aircraft bombed Sokolow Podlaski's market and other civilian targets…
The 1944 Warsaw uprising was the single largest military effort undertaken by resistance forces to oppose German occupation during World War II.
Overview of the Soviet and German occupations of Bialystok, the establishment of a ghetto there, deportations, uprising, and liberation.
Shlomo was the youngest of four brothers born to a Jewish family in the northern Polish town of Malkinia. During World War I, Shlomo served as a male nurse. After the war, he worked as a grain merchant in the Malkinia area, just as his father had. In 1929 he married Pesia Ander, and a year later their first child, Ida, was born. 1933-39: In September 1939, before the invading Germans reached Malkinia, Shlomo fled with his family to the countryside. Exhausted, they returned to their house in Malkinia only…
Rescue efforts during the Holocaust ranged from the isolated actions of individuals to organized networks both small and large.
The Mir ghetto was established in Mir, Poland in 1941. Learn more about life and resistance in the ghetto.
In September 1939, the Germans launched a campaign of terror intended to destroy the Polish nation and culture. Learn more about the German occupation of Poland.
At its height, the Warsaw ghetto held over 400,000 people living in horrendous and worsening conditions. Learn about deportations both to and from the ghetto.
Learn more about the history of Stanisławów during the Holocaust and World War II.
In October 1940, Nazi authorities established the Warsaw ghetto. Learn more about life in the ghetto, deportations, armed resistance, and liberation.
From July 1941-May 1944, the SS camp at Trawniki had several purposes. It is best known as the training site for auxiliary police guards used in Nazi killing centers. Learn more.
The Treaty of Versailles, imposed on Germany following its defeat in World War I, declared Danzig to be a free city jointly administered by Poland and the League of Nations. Germany bitterly resented the loss of this largely German city, which was also an important port on the Baltic Sea. The return of Danzig to Germany became a central focus of Adolf Hitler's foreign policy. Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. After the invasion of Poland, Germany unilaterally annexed Danzig. This German newsreel…
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Nazi Germany invaded much of Eastern and Western Europe. Learn more about German rule in occupied territories.
Economic, governmental, and political life in the Jewish community of Kalisz between World War and World War II.
Welwel lived with his wife, Feiga, and their three children in the small, predominantly Jewish town of Kaluszyn, which was 35 miles east of Warsaw. The Kisielnickis were religious and spoke Yiddish in their home. Welwel was a merchant and often traveled, by horse and wagon, to Warsaw on business. 1933-39: The Kisielnicki family's hopes that the war wouldn't reach Kaluszyn have been shattered. Last week, a German plane flew over their town and dropped a bomb on people waiting in line outside a bakery.…
Mojsze, his wife Raizel and their three children lived 35 miles east of Warsaw in the small, predominantly Jewish town of Kaluszyn. Mojsze had gone to Jewish schools and supported Zionist ideals. By the early 1930s, he owned a wholesale grocery store, a restaurant and a gas station, all of which were located on the heavily traveled main road. 1933-39: Mojsze is at the World's Fair in Paris with his sister, Ruchel. She immigrated here in the 1920s with her husband, who owns a successful tailor shop. When…
Raizel lived with her husband, Mojsze, and their three children in the small, predominantly Jewish town of Kaluszyn, which was 35 miles east of Warsaw. By the 1930s, Mojsze owned a grocery store, a restaurant, and a gas station, all of which were located together on the heavily traveled main road. The family lived in rooms in the same building as their business. 1933-39: Every day Raizel prepares the roast goose served in the family's restaurant. They have a bustling business, as many truck drivers stop…
Idzia was the older of two girls born to Jewish parents who lived 35 miles east of Warsaw in the small predominantly Jewish town of Kaluszyn. Idzia's father owned a liquor store and her mother was a housewife. Idzia was close friends with a group of Jewish teenagers who went to the same public school and spent much of their free time and vacations together. 1933-39: Normally, Idzia goes out with her friends on pleasant summer evenings. They like to stroll down the main street together and visit the sweets…
Learn about Fürstengrube subcamp of Auschwitz, including its establishment, administration, prisoner population, and forced labor and conditions in the camp.
An underground courier for the Polish government-in-exile, Jan Karski was one of the first to deliver eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to Allied leaders.
The Kielce pogrom was a violent massacre in the town of Kielce, Poland in 1946. Learn more about the events that led up to the attack and the aftermath.
The Order Police (Ordnungspolizei, Orpo) were Nazi Germany’s uniformed police forces. They became perpetrators of horrific crimes and played a significant role in the Holocaust.
The Germans established Jewish councils (Judenraete) in the ghettos. Forced to implement Nazi policy, council leaders and members faced impossible moral dilemmas.
Learn about the vibrant Jewish community of Kalisz between World War I and World War II.
Learn about the rescue activities and the fates of Ona Simaite in Lithuania, Joop Westerweel in the Netherlands, and Irena Sendler in Poland.
US filmmaker and photographer Julien Bryan was one of the few western photographers left in Warsaw upon the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.
Learn about the “Tehran Children,” a group of Polish-Jewish refugees. In 1942, they were resettled from the Soviet Union to Palestine via Iran.
A Polish town in ruins after six years of war and German occupation. Poland, 1945.
The Lachwa ghetto was established in Łachwa, Poland in April, 1942. Learn more about the ghetto and uprising.
Read a summary extract from Eliezer Breslin’s testimony on escaping from the Mir ghetto, given during the WWII war crimes investigation into Semion Serafinowicz.
Learn more about how the Nazis identified and tattooed prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp complex.
The Germans established the Blechhammer camp as a subcamp of Auschwitz in April 1941. Learn about the camp's history and conditions there.
Explore a timeline of key events during the history of the Krakow ghetto in German-occupied Poland.
Learn more about the efforts of L.P.J. de Decker, Jan Zwartendijk, and Chiune Sugihara to help Polish Jewish refugees escape Lithuania during the war.
Learn about the administration and commandants of the Auschwitz camp complex in German-occupied Poland.
Adela was the youngest of five children born to religious Jewish parents in the industrial city of Lvov. Often known by her nickname, Putzi, she grew up in the same building as her paternal grandparents and learned to speak Polish, German and Yiddish. She attended public and private schools in Lvov before graduating from a Polish secondary school. 1933-39: Adela's dream was to go on to medical school. But the tiny Jewish quota at colleges and universities virtually excluded Jews from enrolling. By…
View of the manor house in Chelmno that became the site of the Chelmno killing center. Chelmno, Poland, 1939.
Julien Bryan’s ten-minute film Siege, first non-Nazi produced footage of the start of WWII, records horror and chaos in Warsaw following the German invasion.
Assembly point for Poles displaced by the German Race and Resettlement Main Office (RuSHA). Sol, Poland, September 24, 1940.
Norman Salsitz while under the assumed identity Tadeusz Zaleski. Legnica, Poland, 1945.
Mendel was raised in a large, Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish family in Sokolow Podlaski, a manufacturing town in central Poland with a large Jewish population of about 5,000. Upon completing school, Mendel worked as a shoemaker. He was also active in a local Zionist organization. 1933-39: Mendel was married and had a family when the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Aircraft bombed the town's market and other civilian targets before victorious German troops marched into Sokolow Podlaski on…
One of the oldest cities in Poland, Kalisz played a pivotal role in Polish Jewish history. Learn about the Jewish Community in Kalisz from the 12th Century to WWI.
Stefania Podgorska (right), pictured here with her younger sister Helena (left), helped Jews survive in German-occupied Poland. She supplied food to Jews in the Przemysl ghetto. Following the German destruction of the ghetto in 1943, she saved 13 Jews by hiding them in her attic. Przemysl, Poland, 1944.
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. The Blitzkrieg ("lightning war") campaign in Poland was short and decisive. Warsaw, the capital of Poland, surrendered on September 27. In early October, Adolf Hitler visited Warsaw to review his forces. This footage shows victorious German army units parading before Hitler in the streets of the devastated city.
American Jewish Congress president Stephen S. Wise (center right), with Dr. Ignacy Schiper (far left), a Polish Zionist. Warsaw, Poland, 1936.
Regina and her mother at the Busko-Zdroj spa (note that her mother used a cane and little Regina has been given a child's cane). Poland, early 1930s.
German soldiers hold Poles, including Polish clerics, hostage. Bydgoszcz, Poland, September 9, 1939.
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