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Vilna

During the Holocaust, the creation of ghettos was a key step in the Nazi process of ultimately destroying Europe's Jews. Learn about the Vilna ghetto.

Polish Refugees in Iran during World War II

Between 1942-1945, over 116,000 Polish refugees immigrated to Iran. Learn more about their motivations to relocate and life in Iran during the war.

German forces enter Warsaw

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, beginning World War II. German forces swiftly overran Polish border defenses and approached Warsaw, Poland's capital city. Warsaw suffered heavy air attacks and artillery bombardments during the campaign. The city surrendered on September 28. This footage shows German forces entering Warsaw amidst the destruction caused by their bombardment of the city.

Warsaw - Historical Film Footage

Polish Victims: Individual Stories

Europe 1933, Krakow indicated

Lewek Szabasson

Lewek and his five brothers and sisters were born to religious Jewish parents in the town of Kozienice, situated in east central Poland near a birch forest. Lewek's father owned a sawmill, and when Lewek and his brothers were grown, they helped their father manage the family business. 1933-39: When Lewek was 15 he attended an agricultural school near Kozienice, because he wanted to immigrate to Palestine [Aliyah] to work the land. But after the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933, immigration…

Tarnow

Learn about the prewar Jewish community of Tarnow, German occupation, deportations and killings of the Jewish population, ghettoization, and resistance.

Trawniki: Key Dates

Explore a timeline of key events in the history of the Trawniki in German-occupied Poland.

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...

Benjamin Miedzyrzecki (Benjamin Meed) on the Aryan side of Warsaw

Benjamin Miedzyrzecki (Benjamin Meed), a member of the Jewish underground living in hiding on false papers, poses in Ogrod Saski (Saski Gardens) on the Aryan side of Warsaw. Poland, 1943.

Battle for Danzig

The Treaty of Versailles, imposed on defeated Germany following 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 became a central feature of Adolf Hitler's foreign policy. This footage shows pro-German forces besieging a Polish garrison in Danzig's main post office. Germany annexed Danzig after the defeat of Poland…

Ezra Zelig Szabasson

Ezra Zelig, who was called Zelig by family and friends, worked in the lumber business in Kozienice, a village by the Kozienice birch forest. He was married and the father of six children. A prominent member of the community, Zelig served on Kozienice's city council, and was also president of the local Zionist organization. 1933-39: In 1937 Zelig tried to obtain visas for his family to immigrate to Palestine [the Yishuv], at that time a British protectorate, but was unsuccessful because of the…

Chaya Medalion

Chaya and her brother and two sisters were raised in a religious, Yiddish-speaking home in the town of Kozienice, situated in east central Poland near a large birch forest. As a child, Chaya learned Hebrew. She attended Polish public schools and graduated at 14. Her father owned a factory that produced handmade shoes. 1933-39: Chaya was active in the Zionist movement, through which she met her boyfriend, Lewek Szabasson. Chaya and Lewek would stroll on Kozienice's main promenade which was at the…

Israel Yitzak Kisielnicki

The youngest of three children, Israel Yitzak was born to Jewish parents living 35 miles east of Warsaw in the small, predominantly Jewish town of Kaluszyn. Israel's mother was a housewife, and his father was a merchant who often traveled on business, by horse and wagon, to Warsaw. Israel attended public school and also received religious instruction. 1933-39: When Germany invaded Poland several days ago, many kids Israel's age, afraid of what would happen if the Germans occupied Poland, fled to the USSR,…

Wladyslaw Piotrowski

Wladyslaw was born to Catholic parents in Russian-occupied Poland. He grew up in Plock, a town located in a rural area north of Warsaw. Wladyslaw married in 1918 and he and his wife, Marie, raised four children. 1933-39: Wladyslaw worked as a bookkeeper, and then as an accountant for a local farmers' cooperative. In 1931 he was sent to the town of Wyszogrod to close a failing branch of the farmers cooperative. A year later, he organized a new, successful cooperative in Wyszogrod with local farmers and…

Rozia Grynbaum

Rozia was the second-oldest of nine children born to religious Jewish parents in Starachowice, a town in east-central Poland. Their small one-story house served as both the family's residence and their tailor shop. The tailoring was often done in exchange for goods such as firewood or a sack of potatoes. Rozia worked in the shop sewing women's clothing. 1933-39: Rozia married a Jewish tailor from Radom, a large town some 60 miles south of Warsaw. The couple settled in Starachowice, and they ran a tailor…

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…

Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp: Administration

In 1940, the Nazis established Lublin (Majdanek) concentration camp in Lublin, Poland. Learn more about camp administration.

Moishe Menyuk

Moishe was born to a Jewish family in the village of Komarovo, which until 1918 was part of the Russian Empire. At 18, he was drafted into the Russian army and fought in World War I. He was captured by the Germans, and while a POW, learned German. After the war he returned to Komarovo, which by then was part of Poland. He supported his family by farming and managing an estate for a Pole from Warsaw. 1933-39: The few Jews of Komarovo got along well with the Ukrainians. Moishe even played the fiddle at…

Herschel Rosenblat

Herschel was the youngest of three sons born to Yiddish-speaking Jewish parents. When Herschel was a child, his family moved to Radom, an industrial city which had a large Jewish population. By 1930, Herschel had finished his schooling and was helping in his father's shoemaking business. With the help of a friend, he later found a full-time job as a house painter. 1933-39: Herschel's career as a painter was interrupted for two years when he was drafted into the Polish cavalry at the age of 20. When…

Herschel Gerszonowicz

The fourth of eight children, Herschel was born to Jewish parents in south central Poland. His father was a machinist and locksmith. Herschel belonged to the Zionist youth organization, Ha Shomer ha-Tsa'ir, and played soccer for the Jewish team. When he was 14 years old, he left school to become apprenticed to his stepsister's father who was a tailor. 1933-39: Herschel was working as a tailor in Miechow when, on September 1, 1939, the German army invaded Poland. His parents decided that he and his…

Hannah Rosenblat

Hannah was one of six children born to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents in the town of Zvolen in central Poland. She married Jozef Rosenblat, a Jewish shoemaker also from Zvolen. After living in Warsaw for several years, Hannah and Jozef settled in the industrial city of Radom near their hometown. There, they raised their three sons. 1933-39: When Germany threatened to attack Poland in August 1939, Hannah's youngest son, Herschel, was called up by the Polish army. On September 1, 1939, Germany…

Belzec

Belzec was the first of three killing centers in Operation Reinhard, the SS plan to murder almost two million Jews living in the German-administered territory of occupied Poland.

Sobibor

To carry out the mass murder of Europe's Jews, the Nazis established killing centers that used assembly-line methods of murder. Sobibor was among these facilities.