※We had a family life. I had four grandparents. Family＃.there were a lot of certainties. But the certainties ended when I was fourteen years old. They never came back again, of course.§
每 Frieda Menco-Brommet (1925每2019)
Oral history conducted by Deb車rah Dwork, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 1986. Deb車rah Dwork, ※Children With A Star§ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), p.7
JEWS HAD LIVED AS A MINORITY in Europe for two thousand years before Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933. Jewish people were diverse, maintaining Jewish and national identities. Some were pious, some secular; some were poor, some working class, others middle class. After the Nazi regime took control, all Jews caught in their web were at risk. By 1945, six million 每 two-thirds of Europe's prewar Jewish population 每 were annihilated, and the life and culture that had existed for millennia irrevocably ruptured. The same fate was true for the many Roma and Sinti communities, whom the Nazis persecuted, murdering some 500,000 每 a quarter of Europe＊s Roma and Sinti population.
THESE PREWAR PHOTOGRAPHS below from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the former Czechoslovakia and the former Yugoslavia capture the everyday life of the Jewish world and of Roma and Sinti on the eve of the Holocaust.
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Fania Szwarcman stands on a small wooden structure on a river in Kalisz, Poland, 4 June 1938. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #96082. Courtesy of Lola Peres. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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The Kaplan Family vacations in Kulautuva, on the outskirts of Kovno, Lithuania, 1933. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #78550. Courtesy of Shalom Eilati. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Children from the Beit Ahavah Children＊s Home in class, Berlin, Germany, circa 1922每1930. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #48873. Courtesy of Ayelet Bargur. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Frieda Belinfante (far right) poses with three friends before the war, Amsterdam, Netherlands. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #48753. Courtesy of Frieda Belinfante. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Members of the Kornhauser family pose on the beach at Lake Balaton, near Budapest, Hungary, circa 1929每1930. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #14670. Courtesy of George Pick. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Kurt and Helene Liebenau go skating in Berlin, Germany, 1937. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #44600. Courtesy of Gerald Liebenau. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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The Spielman and Weiss cousins feed pigeons, Maastricht, Netherlands, circa 1938每1939. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #74701. Courtesy of Spielman and Hudes Families. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Members of the ice hockey team of the Jewish sport's club, Hagibor, former Czechoslovakia, circa 1925每1930. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #65440. Courtesy of Andrea Renner. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Greta Stoessler Engel stands next to her horse. Austria, circa 1920每1930. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #42064. Courtesy of Katie Altenberg. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Religious Jews on a kayaking excursion, Poland, circa 1930每1939. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #57834. Courtesy Marilka (Mairanz) Ben Naim, Ita (Mairanz) Mond and Tuvia Mairanz, Source Record ID: Collections: 2005.218.1. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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A Jewish youth band performs in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, 1932. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 25106. Courtesy of Gavra Mandil, Source Record ID: Collections: 2002.158. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Bar mitzvah portrait of a Jewish boy in a tallit, holding a prayer book. Brussels, Belgium. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #61579. Courtesy of Paul Halter. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Group portrait of a family of religious Jews in Lodz, Poland, circa 1930每1939. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #62512. Courtesy Ceira Gotlib. Source Record ID: Collections: 2004.164. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Sophie Kimelman poses with her twin cousins holding their dolls, Lvov, Poland, circa 1929每1930. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #65589. Courtesy of Dr. Sophie Kimelman-Rosen. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Members of a French-Hungarian Romani musical band, Lyon, France, circa 1920每1930. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #33341. Courtesy of Rita Prigmore, Source Record ID: Collections: 2004.226.1. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Teenagers at a Purim party, Frankfurt, Germany, circa 1933每1936. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #56413. Courtesy of Walter Wolff. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Josef Cohn and his grandsons, Leo and Haim, study the Talmud, Hamburg, Germany, circa 1932每1933. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #93800. Courtesy of Noemi Cassutto. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Mother and daughter on swing, Zwickau, Germany, circa 1937. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 64847. Courtesy of Shoshana Loeb. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Group portrait of girls with mandolins and a guitar, Zamosc, Poland, 1933. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #54613. Courtesy of Regina Zavier. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Elly and Henri Rodrigues (front center) at a birthday party in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1936. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #96361. Courtesy of Carolyn Stewart. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Two Jewish brothers on vacation in Italy, April 1935. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #17193. Courtesy of Charles & Herma Ellenboghen Barber. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Group portrait of students at the Bait Yaakov religious school for girls dressed in their Purim costumes, Kolbuszowa, Poland, 1938. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #67180. Courtesy of Norman Salsitz, Source Record ID: Collections: 2003.425.1. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Three young Dutch Jewish couples celebrate Purim in the Netherlands, 1934. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #05373. Courtesy of Tswi Herschel. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Portrait of a Jewish mother and son, former Czechoslovakia, 1939. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #47570. Courtesy of Gabriella Reitler Rosberger, Source Record ID: Collections: 2004.7. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Gavril Mandel celebrates his fourth birthday with parents and sister in Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia, 6 September 1940. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #08211. Courtesy of Gavra Mandil Source Record ID: Collections: 2002.158. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Group portrait of young boys in a cheder in Mukachevo, former Czechoslovakia, now Ukraine, 24 June 1938. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #44642. Courtesy of Ruth Cohen. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Portrait of Marcell Gal, a child violin prodigy from Sighet, Romania, circa 1920. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #22680. Courtesy of Mitchell Eisen. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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From a photo album documenting one day in the life of the Gans brothers - Carl, Manfred, and Theo. Borken, Germany, 1931. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #63108. Courtesy of Manfred Gans Estate. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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The Fubini family poses by a riverbank, Torino, Italy, circa 1930每1939. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #49040. Courtesy of Franco Fubini. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Group portrait of piano students and their teacher, Bialystock, Poland, 1935. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #79206. Courtesy of Franco Ewa Kracowska. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Jews at work in a tailor shop owned by Natan Wolf Lewkowicz in Bedzin, Poland, 1918. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #42518. Courtesy of Irving and Lita Berk. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Wedding portrait of Magda Shiller and Miklos Blauhorn, Novi Knezevac, former Yugoslavia, circa 1933每1934. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #97267. Courtesy of Ivan Singer. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Close-up portrait of Ernst Manstein, an art teacher, in his studio, Wuerzburg, Germany, 14 March 1937. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #17389. Courtesy of Martha (Martel Sommer) Hirsch. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Portrait of two Jewish sisters, Budapest, Hungary, circa 1930每1935. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #45560. Courtesy of Provenance: Gabor Kalman Source Record ID: Collections: 2001.335. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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A group of young Greek Jews in front of a tobacco store, Salonika, Greece, circa 1930-1939. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #4248. Courtesy of Jack Beraha, Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Roma Family, Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany, 1936. - Bundesarchiv, R 165 Bild-244-59 / Photographer unknown.
The Holocaust: 1933-1945 Aftermath
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