United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

08/22/2021

“We were told that we had to leave the school—that Jews could no longer attend German schools.… I was heartbroken.”

Following the German tradition, Berta Rosenhein’s parents gave her a Schultüte (school cone) filled with treats to celebrate a new school year in 1929. Berta was an exceptional student who was devastated when, years later, she and other Jewish students were banned from attending their secular high school.

Despite her resistance to leaving her parents, they insisted Berta escape N**i Germany on a Kindertransport when she was 15.

“Lo and behold, Wednesday afternoon, my parents and I and my little suitcase took the trolley to the railroad station where we were met by the person who was in charge, and we were put on the train. And of course my last memory of my parents is them standing on the platform.”

Berta was sent to England and secured a sponsorship to attend the Royal College of Art. She never saw her parents again. Her father, Walter, died of cancer in 1940, and her mother, Irma, was killed in the Holocaust.

“We were told that we had to leave the school—that Jews could no longer attend German schools.… I was heartbroken.”

Following the German tradition, Berta Rosenhein’s parents gave her a Schultüte (school cone) filled with treats to celebrate a new school year in 1929. Berta was an exceptional student who was devastated when, years later, she and other Jewish students were banned from attending their secular high school.

Despite her resistance to leaving her parents, they insisted Berta escape N**i Germany on a Kindertransport when she was 15.

“Lo and behold, Wednesday afternoon, my parents and I and my little suitcase took the trolley to the railroad station where we were met by the person who was in charge, and we were put on the train. And of course my last memory of my parents is them standing on the platform.”

Berta was sent to England and secured a sponsorship to attend the Royal College of Art. She never saw her parents again. Her father, Walter, died of cancer in 1940, and her mother, Irma, was killed in the Holocaust.

08/21/2021

In August 1941, seven-year-old Ruth Engelhardt boarded the SS Mouzinho in Lisbon, Portugal, without any family. Her father, who may have been Jewish, died before she was born, and her mother, who was not Jewish, was against the N**i party and was imprisoned at a French internment camp for stealing military supplies.

Ruth was one of more than 300 refugee children the US Committee for the Care of European Children—USCOM—brought to the United States.

Upon her arrival to the United States, Ruth was placed in foster care with the Spivack family in Cleveland, Ohio. The Spivacks had a daughter, Sherry, who was close to Ruth’s age, and they welcomed Ruth into their family like their own child. Ruth’s mother joined her in the United States after the war ended, but Ruth and the Spivacks remained close. She continued to refer to the Spivacks as her parents and Sherry as her sister for the rest of her life.

Photo: Gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/united-states-committee-for-the-care-of-european-children?utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=americans&utm_content=ruthengelhardtphotoonssmouzinho20210821

In August 1941, seven-year-old Ruth Engelhardt boarded the SS Mouzinho in Lisbon, Portugal, without any family. Her father, who may have been Jewish, died before she was born, and her mother, who was not Jewish, was against the N**i party and was imprisoned at a French internment camp for stealing military supplies.

Ruth was one of more than 300 refugee children the US Committee for the Care of European Children—USCOM—brought to the United States.

Upon her arrival to the United States, Ruth was placed in foster care with the Spivack family in Cleveland, Ohio. The Spivacks had a daughter, Sherry, who was close to Ruth’s age, and they welcomed Ruth into their family like their own child. Ruth’s mother joined her in the United States after the war ended, but Ruth and the Spivacks remained close. She continued to refer to the Spivacks as her parents and Sherry as her sister for the rest of her life.

Photo: Gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/united-states-committee-for-the-care-of-european-children?utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=americans&utm_content=ruthengelhardtphotoonssmouzinho20210821

08/20/2021

“We arrived in Drancy and checked in. The checking-in process in Drancy was a first step in a real dehumanization process," remembered Leo Bretholz. "Minimal facilities to wash.… Minimum toilet facilities. Watchtowers. Barbed wire. A suburb of Paris, close to, quote, ‘civilization.’”

Occupying German authorities established the Drancy camp 80 years ago this month as an internment camp for Jews arrested in Paris. Located in a northeastern suburb of Paris, the camp was initially under joint German-French administration. In 1942, the Germans transformed Drancy into a transit camp. Austrian Jew Leo Bretholz was one of approximately 70,000 prisoners who passed through Drancy between August 1941 and August 1944. The majority were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland.

During his brief time at Drancy, Leo met and befriended another young Austrian Jew. In November 1942, they were assigned to convoy 42 bound for Auschwitz. They were loaded onto a crowded cattle car where they immediately began enacting an escape plan.

“We were working under pressure. This was our getaway. This was life. There the countryside flew by us, that bucolic countryside…. But here we were going to certain death, which we now know. At that time, we only speculated…. Finally, under the cover of the darkness…, we did climb out of that cattle car.… My friend … was the first to jump. And I jumped right after him.”

Leo survived the war in France and immigrated to the United States in 1947. Of the approximately 64,000 Jews deported from the Drancy camp, Leo is one of fewer than 2,000 to survive the Holocaust.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/drancy?utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=otd&utm_content=drancyestablished20210820

“We arrived in Drancy and checked in. The checking-in process in Drancy was a first step in a real dehumanization process," remembered Leo Bretholz. "Minimal facilities to wash.… Minimum toilet facilities. Watchtowers. Barbed wire. A suburb of Paris, close to, quote, ‘civilization.’”

Occupying German authorities established the Drancy camp 80 years ago this month as an internment camp for Jews arrested in Paris. Located in a northeastern suburb of Paris, the camp was initially under joint German-French administration. In 1942, the Germans transformed Drancy into a transit camp. Austrian Jew Leo Bretholz was one of approximately 70,000 prisoners who passed through Drancy between August 1941 and August 1944. The majority were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland.

During his brief time at Drancy, Leo met and befriended another young Austrian Jew. In November 1942, they were assigned to convoy 42 bound for Auschwitz. They were loaded onto a crowded cattle car where they immediately began enacting an escape plan.

“We were working under pressure. This was our getaway. This was life. There the countryside flew by us, that bucolic countryside…. But here we were going to certain death, which we now know. At that time, we only speculated…. Finally, under the cover of the darkness…, we did climb out of that cattle car.… My friend … was the first to jump. And I jumped right after him.”

Leo survived the war in France and immigrated to the United States in 1947. Of the approximately 64,000 Jews deported from the Drancy camp, Leo is one of fewer than 2,000 to survive the Holocaust.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/drancy?utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=otd&utm_content=drancyestablished20210820

08/20/2021

On National Radio Day, we remember how a radio broadcast calling for diaries of ordinary Dutch people inspired Anne Frank to begin editing the diary she had been keeping. After Anne's death, her father published her diary, which became one of the world's best-known books.

Throughout her time in hiding, the radio was a lifeline for Anne, her family, and the other inhabitants of the secret annex. "It's true," she wrote. "As reports from outside grow worse and worse, the radio, with its wondrous voice, helps us not to lose heart and to keep telling ourselves, 'Cheer up, keep your spirits high, things are bound to get better!'"

On National Radio Day, we remember how a radio broadcast calling for diaries of ordinary Dutch people inspired Anne Frank to begin editing the diary she had been keeping. After Anne's death, her father published her diary, which became one of the world's best-known books.

Throughout her time in hiding, the radio was a lifeline for Anne, her family, and the other inhabitants of the secret annex. "It's true," she wrote. "As reports from outside grow worse and worse, the radio, with its wondrous voice, helps us not to lose heart and to keep telling ourselves, 'Cheer up, keep your spirits high, things are bound to get better!'"

08/19/2021

Photographer Roman Vishniac created some of the most iconic images of Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust. He documented a world that would soon vanish—but few of his photographs contained captions, creating unanswered questions about the subjects featured in some of his best-known photographs.

Roman took this photo of a farmer circa 1935–38 in Vysni Apsa, Carpathian Ruthenia. For decades, the name and fate of the farmer were unknown.

That changed when Lisa Wahler saw the photograph in the Museum’s Permanent Exhibition. She recognized her grandfather, Chaim Simcha Mechlowitz, as the man in the photo.

Lisa donated a collection of family photographs—including this second image of her grandparents with six of her grandfather’s ten children—to the Museum and shared her family’s story.

Her mother, Brucha Zelda Mechlowitz, left Vysni Apsa for Western Europe before World War II. She was deported from Belgium to Auschwitz. She survived incarceration and a forced march before American forces liberated her in May 1945.

Chaim, along with his wife, five younger children, and three stepchildren, were deported to Auschwitz after Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944. He did not survive.

Photo: Gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley

08/19/2021

A Lasting Imprint: Photos Document a Vibrant Town Destroyed

On World Photography Day, learn about one of our Museum's most moving tributes. The people of Eisiskes were wiped out by the Germans and their collaborators in 1941. But they were not erased. Learn about some of the lives illustrated in 1,000 photos on our Museum walls.

08/19/2021

Photos from a Jewish town destroyed after the German invasion of the Soviet Union

Snowy days, birthdays, and every important milestone. More than 1,000 photos capture the simple pleasures experienced by the Jewish community of Eisiskes, a small village in what is now Lithuania. Today, no known Jews remain in this town. The Germans and their collaborators wiped most of them out over two days in September 1941. But the once vibrant community of Eisiskes was not lost forever.

Today, on World Photography Day, we'll share the story behind one of the most moving tributes in our Museum. The vibrant prewar photographs of the people of Eisiskes breathe life into a three-story tower. Watch live today on Facebook at 9:30 a.m. ET to learn about the Holocaust survivor who made it her life's work to tell the world about her people as she chose to remember them—as more than the victims of a senseless murder, targeted because they were Jewish.

08/18/2021

Szymen Rozowski was the last rabbi of a village in present-day Lithuania—home to a vibrant Jewish community for hundreds of years.

After N**i Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he warned his people to buy weapons and prepare to fight. But the townspeople of Eisiskes had experienced antisemitism for most of their lives and many thought they could endure the turmoil, and even violence, as they had in the past. Rozowski was proven right when the German and Lithuanian forces rounded up the Jewish residents of Eisiskes. Over two days in September 1941, the men, women, and children were murdered en masse as the perpetrators fired on them with rifles and threw their bodies into pits.

Much of what we know of the community’s last days is due to its few survivors, some of whom believed Rozowski and fled. Watch live on Facebook on Thursday, August 19, at 9:30 a.m. ET to learn what happened to Rabbi Rozowski and remember the people of Eisiskes.

Szymen Rozowski was the last rabbi of a village in present-day Lithuania—home to a vibrant Jewish community for hundreds of years.

After N**i Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he warned his people to buy weapons and prepare to fight. But the townspeople of Eisiskes had experienced antisemitism for most of their lives and many thought they could endure the turmoil, and even violence, as they had in the past. Rozowski was proven right when the German and Lithuanian forces rounded up the Jewish residents of Eisiskes. Over two days in September 1941, the men, women, and children were murdered en masse as the perpetrators fired on them with rifles and threw their bodies into pits.

Much of what we know of the community’s last days is due to its few survivors, some of whom believed Rozowski and fled. Watch live on Facebook on Thursday, August 19, at 9:30 a.m. ET to learn what happened to Rabbi Rozowski and remember the people of Eisiskes.

08/17/2021

These passports belonged to Egon and Annemarie Israelski, a Jewish couple from Berlin. Below their photos, their names have been crossed out and rewritten as “Egon Israel Israelski” and “Annemarie Sara Israelski.”

#OnThisDay in 1938, the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names set new requirements for Jews in Germany. It required German Jews bearing first names of “non-Jewish” origin to adopt an additional name: “Israel” for men and “Sara” for women. Forcing Jews to adopt these names was a way to identify and separate them from the rest of the German public.

Egon and Annemarie were married on October 13, 1938, and lived with Annemarie's parents in their large Berlin apartment. Shortly after Kristallnacht, a night of widespread antisemitic violence in November 1938, Egon was taken by the N**is and put into a forced labor camp. Annemarie did not want to be separated from her new husband and volunteered to go with him. They were released from forced labor only after they agreed to emigrate.

Because US immigration quotas had been filled, the couple could not immigrate to the United States as they had hoped. Instead, they settled temporarily in Shanghai, which did not require visas. After the war, Annemarie, Egon, and their infant son finally immigrated to the United States in 1947.

08/16/2021

Artifacts Unpacked: The School Pictures

Yoka Verdoner, a rising second grader in German-occupied Netherlands, found out in 1941 that she and other Jewish children could no longer attend public schools with other Dutch students.

Yoka’s parents decided to enroll her in a Jewish school. In her class photo, the students are smiling for the camera and look sharp in their picture day outfits. But the Jewish stars on their vests and dresses—and on their teacher’s sweater—foreshadow the coming calamity of the Holocaust.

Discover and share one family’s story.

08/15/2021

N**i Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War

In June 1941, German forces invaded the Communist Soviet Union. Within a matter of months, millions of Soviet soldiers were encircled, cut off from supplies and reinforcements, and forced to surrender.

German political and military leaders regarded Soviet prisoners of war as racial, political, and ideological enemies. As such, Soviet POWs were treated mercilessly under the N**i regime. They lacked proper food, clothing, and shelter. Typhoid and dysentery ran rampant in POW camps.

In January 1945, the German army reported that only about 930,000 Soviet POWs remained in German custody. Approximately 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war had been murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or brutal treatment.

Second only to the Jews, Soviet POWs were the largest group of victims of N**i racial policy.

Pictured here is Heinrich Himmler, head of the German SS, inspecting Soviet POWs at a German camp in Minsk #OnThisDay in 1941.

Photo: National Archives

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