As the United States fought the Nazis across Europe during World War II, it was bolstered by a small, specialized team whose role wasn’t revealed to the public for many decades. It included thousands of young men who had recently fled Nazi persecution in Germany and Austria for the United…
When asked what they want to be when they grow up, the children replied, “a doctor, an engineer, a chef, a painter, a teacher.” Others said they hope they can just go home.
The children attend a school started in 2016 in Idlib, Syria, to educate youth who have been orphaned and displaced by the war that began in 2011. Civilians in Syria have experienced crimes against humanity and remain at risk today. During a decade of conflict, more than 500,000 Syrians have…
Educators Endured Torture to Keep Nazism Out of Classrooms
In 1940, the Nazi regime’s terrible march across Europe reached Norway, where Germany sought to secure the country’s naval bases. The Norwegian King and government fled to London; Vidkun Quisling, a puppet of the Third Reich, proclaimed himself prime minister. …
Throughout the Holocaust and in its aftermath, schools provided more than education. They offered places of refuge, of hope, and of recuperation. Teachers and students across Nazi Germany and its occupied territories went to great lengths to fight for education — and their lives.
Each photograph below highlights a remarkable…
It is hard to fathom what Yaffa Eliach witnessed as a little girl.
She was born in the mid-1930s and her childhood started with happy years surrounded by family and friends in a vibrant Jewish community. Just a few years later, conflict intruded, upending her life over and over again.
…
Szymen Rozowski was the last rabbi of Eisiskes.
He was killed in September 1941 after Nazi Germany occupied the area, which is now Lithuania. …
Avigdor Katz might be one of the best-documented victims of the September 1941 massacres in Eisiskes, now part of Lithuania. His parents, Yitzhak and Alte Katz, owned the photography studio in the town. …
It can feel difficult to relate to victims and survivors of the Holocaust. It feels so distant from our lives today. But it happened just 80 years ago, to people who had a lot in common with us.
This unexpected familiarity is what makes the “Tower of Faces’’ at the…
The young people posed for the photo about 80 years ago, wearing smiles or looks of grim determination. At home, Soviet-annexed Lithuania, they faced antisemitism and prohibitions on their religious and cultural activities. So they looked abroad in hopes of a better future.
Most did not make it.
Of these…
We don’t know much about Sarah and Leah Michalowski.
They were part of the extended Michalowski family in Eisiskes, now part of Lithuania. We have a photo of Leah’s fourth-grade class. We have a photo of a relative who was a butcher. …
