Inside the Warsaw Ghetto, Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum knew that it was only a matter of time until his Jewish community was completely wiped out. But, refusing to let the Nazis destroy all evidence of Polish Jewish life, Ringelblum began archiving his entire community… with the help of a Shabbat afternoon club and a small collection of milkcans.
Where the Wild Jews Are: Maurice Sendak’s Real Life Monsters
For the monsters in the book “Where the Wild Things Are”, Maurice Sendak had in mind people he actually knew. The dark themes of his children’s books, which have been the subject of repeated criticism, reflected the world he inhabited
Living the Good Life in a Nazi Death Camp: The SS at Sobibor
These photos reveal the leisure activities of the SS members who lived on the grounds of the Sobibor extermination camp
Tracking a Child’s Footprint: The Rescue of France’s Jewish Children in the Holocaust
“Colonie Scolaire” was founded years before WWII with the aim of supporting the children of Paris’s poor immigrants. With the beginning of Jewish persecution in occupied France, the organization went underground in order to save as many Jewish children as possible. This is the story of one of those children, told through the organization’s documents…
What’s It Like Being a Nazi Hunter? The Files of Tuviah Friedman
Tuviah Friedman never forgot nor did he forgive. He dedicated his life to finding and capturing fugitive Nazis, as part of the effort to bring them to trial for their crimes. He was the first to obtain credible information that placed Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Looking through his archive files preserved at the National Library of Israel offers a glimpse into the day-to-day work of a Nazi hunter…
Persecuted for Their Judaism in Germany and for Their German Origins in America
The story of the Jewish refugees from Germany who fled the Nazis to Latin America and found themselves in internment camps in the United States during World War II
Escaping Certain Death: How the Jews of Treblinka Rose Up and Fought Back
During its year of operation, Treblinka extermination camp was one of the most deadly places on earth. Dr. Julian Chorążycki led a band of unsung heroes who helped put an end to these horrors, and gave his life for the uprising that brought Treblinka to its knees. In this article we commemorate the brave young doctor and the courage he showed in the face of the greatest possible adversity
Who Are the Jews Depicted in These Holocaust-Era Portraits?
“These were powerful images I saw – to give form to all that misery – to show it to the world – this was always my intent”. The artist David Friedmann produced hundreds of portraits during the time of the Nazi occupation in Prague. Surviving are only ninety-four portraits of members of the Prague Jewish Community from the years 1940-1941. Yet numerous subjects depicted in these artworks remain unidentified to this day. Can you help us solve this mystery?
The Opera That Survived the Ghetto: The Story of “The Kaiser of Atlantis”
Under a perpetual shadow of death, as train after train was sent to Auschwitz, Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien, imprisoned in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, composed a searing opera satirizing the awful reality in Europe. Both were murdered, but a suitcase filled with Ullmann’s works survived to tell the story of the human spirit’s triumph over death
“The Jews were in shock…” – A Nazi View of Kristallnacht
Reports and books written by senior members of the Nazi regime deposited in the National Library of Israel reveal chilling texts describing “The Night of Broken Glass” from the Nazi perspective…
