Projections of Life: Jewish Life before World War II

in 1933 approximately 9.5 million jews lived in europe comprising 1.7 percent of the total european population and more than 60 percent of the world's jewish population jewish life across europe was diverse in religious practice occupation and degree of integration into regional and national life in little more than a decade most of europe would be dominated by germany and its axis partners and the majority of european jews two out of every three would be killed this pristine kodachrome film was shot by dr benjamin gusoul who was born in latvia and immigrated to the united states at the age of 16. as a leading pediatrician in chicago dr gossel was invited to give a lecture in the soviet union in 1939 so he and his wife laila took an opportunity to tour europe they brought along their 16 millimeter movie camera and shot this footage showing the jewish quarter of warsaw in summer 1939 just a few weeks before the invasion of poland by germany which started world war ii his daughter recalls dad insisted that his movies be in color he was very proud of that this is one of several films in the united states holocaust memorial museum's film archive that was shot by jews who had immigrated to the united states but then returned to europe and recorded scenes of daily life dr gossel's daughter said dad wanted to visit the historic jewish quarter of warsaw to see how jews were living part of filming this community would be to reconnect with the roots he had in riga here you see typical features of amateur movies kids trying to get in the frame while some adults especially religious jews cover their faces in poland in 1939 the camera would have been a novelty to many of those being filmed albert hess came from a prominent jewish family in piranha germany here in july 1936 albert and his first wife ilsa sobel dine in a cafe albert and his two siblings and their families managed to escape nazi germany just a year later in 1937. he eventually settled in new york and returned to europe with the american military as an intelligence officer and interpreter still in motion picture photography were albert's lifelong hobbies he even included titles in his film such as this which reads returning home from a walk the sure meister family lived in copenhagen but spent their summers in sneckerstein denmark this is a havdalah ceremony marking the end of the jewish sabbath in october 1943 the cherumysters were warned of the impending roundup of the danish jews the family made it safely to sweden but bernhard who plays with his children here committed suicide the day after their arrival lis the tallest of the three girls is the donor's mother bobby tenenbaum and his cousin edith walk hand in hand with their older cousin paul the children play with each other and with relatives in drosha park in vienna in may 1938 note the swastika on a poster affixed to a lamppost behind this shot of edith indicating this was filmed after the anceloos when the nazis occupied austria the extended tenenbaum family lived in vienna until march 1939 and marcus eventually helped most of his family members including young edith and her parents escape to the united states in this eight millimeter film from 1939 or 1940 peter and nina laterer and the younger cousin pick flowers in a field in czechoslovakia their father robert later died in a labor camp in iranianburg rose and the children were sent to teresianstad while there nina painted a watercolor that would later appear in the book i never saw another butterfly nina peter and their mother were deported to their deaths in auschwitz in may 1944 blanca heller rose's younger sister survived the holocaust and retrieved these home movies from an acquaintance who had safeguarded the family's possessions hana fuchs with the tennis racquet and her brother yirji came from prague their father oscar worked as a chemist and ceo of a major food corporation here the fuchs vacation at a beach in the sudetenland this is yerjee and his father oscar the fuchs family was deported to terezian stott during the war oscar was appointed head of the economic police in the ghetto and he oversaw the distribution of food only hana and yirji survived the degree family went into hiding in the netherlands and only lewis the donor of this footage survived here the family ice skates on a pond in sansbeck park in arnhem in the summers of 1932 and 1934 morris unger and his family traveled from new york to morris's hometown of nebilits poland morris pleaded with his father coleman to leave but he refused and was murdered along with nearly all 300 jews in the town most of the lieberman family immigrated to palestine from poland between 1935 and 1939 and survived the war this clip shows alyssa sperber with a rake and other relatives working in a field in poland the lieberman family collection of home movies consists of more than 50 9.5 millimeter films an amateur format that was very popular in europe sam raphael the son of a taylor left gambin poland for new york at the age of 17. he went back to ganbin first in 1930 then with his wife in 1937 when he shot this film on both occasions he took with him money that he had raised to help relieve the poverty of the gombin jewish community people like rafael who returned to where they came from preserved these images of small towns that were not tourist destinations and might not otherwise have been recorded here residents of the town pose for the camera they are obviously familiar with the cameraman and feel comfortable being filmed by him people gather in front of the synagogue which was built in 1710 and would be destroyed by the germans on yom kippur in 1939 men stand beside tombstones in the local cemetery only about 212 of the approximately 2300 jews of ganbin survived the holocaust lola katz her son grisha and other family members stroll along the streets of coveno lithuania in 1929. here is lava poland where hanan katz and his brother yasha had traveled in connection with their father's bicycle business beautiful street and market scenes show levels thriving jewish community which was the third largest jewish community in poland at the time the cat's family an economist a dentist and their children lived in the kavno ghetto during the war lola and her two children survived the holocaust but her husband itzkak was killed in a pogrom in june 1941. hanan also survived the war and safely stored this 16-millimeter film along with other belongings in his apartment in paris the movie was recovered by deeta katz and donated to the united states holocaust memorial museum in 1995 here in the market yasha appears wearing a plaid scarf you also see the quick pans and shaky camera movement typical in amateur filmmaking julian bryan was an american documentarian between 1935 and 1938 he filmed the everyday lives of people in nazi germany in part for the american newsreel the march of time this clip shows jewish students in the classroom of berlin's goldschmidt school in 1937. the girl writing on the chalkboard is margo siegel the girl with the blonde braids is true to goldschmidt daughter of the school's founder when brian screened this footage publicly to an american audience in 1938 he said do you realize today that not a single teacher in an ordinary school can be a jew this is a special jewish school the last refuge left for them to my mind in another five years there will be very few of these 500 000 jews left alive this 35 millimeter film is nitrate which gives it such beautiful tones but has the disadvantage of being highly flammable and even explosive so it's not produced anymore you can see the evidence of nitrate decomposition at the sides of the image as this clip ends the american jewish joint distribution committee also known as the jdc was the primary communal agency for the overseas relief and rehabilitation of jews the jdc provided funding through the joint agricultural corporation or agro-joint to settle soviet jews on the land primarily in the ukraine and crimea here is one of those colonies in the crimea filmed by myron falk jr and pauline falk in june 1935 on their honeymoon the fox were joined by evelyn morrissey assistant treasurer of the agro-joint who later wrote a book about the trip here men tend to a well probably in the coli district the well was used to water vineyards which appear elsewhere in the film pauline wearing a plaid shirt and headscarf rinses her hands with water the damage that you see here is due to the fact that the film was developed hastily in the soviet union with poor chemicals here evelyn gestures with a still photo camera there were some 85 000 jews living in the crimea in 1939 almost all of them were murdered by the german einsatz group a d unit in july 1941. this is jeff m lebarsky the vice president of the agro-joint in 1939 david glick visited every country in south america on behalf of the jdc to survey the needs of the german and austrian refugees who had settled there the films in this collection are the only known photographic documentation of glick's journeys glick met with top nazi leaders and the u.s and british governments to assist thousands of jews wishing to immigrate to palestine and south america the next few items fall into a sort of sub-genre of footage privately shot by emma grays who visited their hometowns from the united states david and lisa kurtz traveled to europe in 1938 and filmed their vacation including the jewish quarter of david's hometown of nashels poland people exit the local synagogue and friends mingle only approximately eighty of the three thousand jews living in nashelsk in 1939 survived the war among them was maurice chandler who was recently identified by his granddaughter when she discovered this footage streaming on the museum's website the cameraman's grandson glenn is now writing a book about the home movie and says donating the film feels like a way to honor my grandparents as jewish americans the kurtz has made this trip with three friends lewis and rosie molina and essie diamond who appear here exiting the synagogue robert woman returned to his hometown of warsaw for a visit in 1932 and filmed these scenes showing jews and non-jewish poles interacting in the bustling city streets woman had immigrated to the united states around 1920 traveling on a boat that was carrying home the american dead of world war one he married and established a photography studio in akron ohio after the germans invaded poland in 1939 woman lost touch with his relatives there including his father and never heard from them again here are street scenes in a lefke street in the jewish quarter of warsaw before world war ii the city was a major center of jewish life and culture in poland with the jewish population of more than 350 000 making it the largest jewish community in both poland and europe and the second largest in the world after new york city when soviet troops liberated a devastated warsaw in 1945 less than 4 percent of the pre-war jewish population remained in 1937 jacob hurts and his family toured europe he saved his prize color film for a family reunion in vola poland here in the red dress is belle her sister judith and their polish cousins guidol and esther with sunglasses jacob's father a farmer seen here with the beard was later shot in front of his house when he was unable to climb into the wagon used to deport the rest of the family here is another homemade title signifying the documentary goals of film hobbyists lewis summer and morris klein traveled from omaha nebraska to visit their hometown of humana slovakia in 1932 and 1933. peasants sell their wares in humana's marketplace on the main street the klein family shop was situated across from the market here local policemen posed for the camera with one of the americans in a dark suit and hat only a few members of the summer and klein families survived the war including the donors bernard and emery klein dr gossel whose color footage started this compilation returns to the united states aboard the normandy meyer de groot and his wife sophia owned a hardware store in arnhem the netherlands here the de groot children lewis and rachel play in an alley beside their home in spring 1941. the man carrying lewis on his shoulders was a non-jew with whom the children spent their first night in hiding in november 1942. rachel later joined her parents in hiding in amsterdam but the family was denounced deported to westerbork and then auschwitz where they perished lewis survived by hiding in several dozen places and retrieved these eight millimeter family films from a photo studio safe that had been bombed during the war this is mara vishnyakon the daughter of the renowned jewish photographer roman vishnak in berlin around 1927. dr max shore was a psychoanalyst and sigmund freud's personal physician his wife helen was also a doctor they married in vienna in 1930 and had two children peter and eva who you see playing here on the porch of their home with their parents seated behind them the shore family lived in vienna until 1938 when they escaped they went first to new york and then to london so that dr shore could care for after freud's death in october 1939 the family moved back to new york here you see peter on his first day of school today peter and ava are doctors as you can see the image quality of this film is compromised because the original 9.5 millimeter film was lost and only a vhs exists jarrett and hilda for donor and their children francisca otto and yoka lived in hilversum until 1940. the children and their father survived in hiding but hilda did not this is yoka's fifth birthday party this is another clip from the hess collection it shows an unknown boy mimicking the cameraman's actions holding up a slate and turning the crank on the camera the khan family summered in zonfort a popular vacation destination the khans lived in the netherlands until they escaped to the dutch east indies in may 1940 after the german invasion in this footage from 1938 robert and betsy play on the beach robert rides a pony and family members wave for the camera while exiting their home as it happens robert kahn married francisco verdoner whose film appeared earlier both the cons and the verdoners have donated large collections of photographs along with their home movies to the united states holocaust memorial museum this is five-year-old hannah lieberman in the garden of her mother's family home in olomot's czechoslovakia julian bryan filmed the polish cities of krakow and warsaw in 1936 creating a record of pre-war jewish economic and cultural life here are vendors in a marketplace and in the background the izak synagogue which still stands today and houses a practicing orthodox congregation much of this footage shows the traditionally jewish district of krakow known as kashmir established in the late 15th century on the eve of world war ii some 56 000 jews resided in krakow which was almost one quarter of the city's total population still brian noted a degree of anti-semitism in poland even among educated people here in the streets of warsaw is a funeral procession for maria steinberger and back in krakow jews prepare for the harvest festival of sukkot beneath the archway made famous in an iconic roman vishnyak photograph here young yeshiva students laugh and pose for brian's camera many of the jews of krakow were concentrated into a ghetto established by the germans in march 1941. about 4 000 jews survived in krakow in this film from 1940 hilda verdoner and her daughters sled an ice skate at an outdoor rink in hilversum the netherlands the verdoner children and their father survived but hilda was murdered on arrival at auschwitz in 1944 lastly here are marcus bobby and erna tenenbaum aboard the queen mary ship in march 1939 leaving europe and surely wondering what awaited them in a new country far from home even the most commonplace home movie may help us and future generations understand the impact historical events have on ordinary people the holocaust museum's steven spielberg film and video archive actively seeks to collect preserve study and make accessible amateur films like these in so doing we rescue the evidence of the holocaust you

Channel: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Views: 1,351,553

Rating: 4.5934181 out of 5

Keywords: Jewish People (Ethnicity), Judaism (Religion), Pre-WarJewish Life, Family, Children, Vacation, Americans visit European Hometowns, Amateur Film (Film Genre)

Id: kNobaSEckHQ

Length: 28min 35sec (1715 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 29 2014

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