The Lost Seder Plates: A Glimpse of a Vanished Jewish World

The centuries-old Seder plates photographed by Theodor Harburger in the 1920s may be the only remnants we have of many Jewish families from Bavaria, Germany. Harburger survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel, bringing with him his rare collection, which serves as a testament to the lives of German Jewish communities that were plundered and murdered in the Holocaust. These antique Seder plates preserve not only the story of the holiday throughout the generations but also the stories of the families at whose tables they once stood.

هجرة جماعية ليهود فيينا، تشرين الأول 1941 (تصوير: موقع بلدية فيينا)، على خلفية وثائق الهجرة المحفوظة في الأرشيف المركزي لتاريخ الشعب اليهودي في المكتبة الوطنية

Revealed: Immigration Documents Filled Out by Austrian Jews During the Nazi Occupation

A trove of documents from Vienna’s Jewish community during the Anschluss period has been revealed to the public for the first time thanks to a collaboration between MyHeritage and the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People at the National Library of Israel. The collection contains 228,250 records, including scanned original documents submitted by Jews hoping to emigrate from Vienna. These documents, available on the Library’s website, provide extraordinary insights into the life of Vienna’s thriving Jewish community in the years 1938–1939