A black and white photograph taken at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany shortly after its liberation in April 1945. The photo is of a boy between two liberated inmates of Buchenwald.
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in April 1945. The photograph is of a gallows and, in the background, a pile of human ashes.
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in May 1945. The photograph is of a memorial dedicated to those who died at Buchenwald.
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in April 1945. The photograph is of an SS general being returned to the scene of the Holocaust crimes at Buchenwald. The general is seen walking second from left,the contributor, Charles C. Cross, is seen to the far right in a helmut with his hands on his hips.
The reverse of Image 05 on which Charles C. Cross has recorded "View down the hill." Living conditions and food rations worsened the further one was down the hill.
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in April 1945. The photograph is of living conditions at Buchenwald, specifically the sewage draining downhill. Living conditions and food rations worsened as one went further down the hill.
The reverse of Image 06 on which Charles C. Cross has recorded "They are picking up a few more that didn't quite make it in spite of food and medical aid given by the U.S. Army, too far gone."
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in April 1945. The photograph is of medical workers transporting the bodies of those who had died despite medical aid and food provided by the U.S. Army and the Red Cross.
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in April 1945. The photograph is of the entrance to the ovens at Buchenwald.
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in April 1945. The photograph is of dead prisoners stacked like cordwood awaiting cremation.
A black and white photograph taken shortly after the liberation of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald in Germany in April 1945. The photograph is of some of the "healthier" inmates at Buchenwald.
Postcard with a black-and-white photograph of the crematorium furnaces at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, on the site of Auschwitz concentration camp.
Photograph depicts Renee Kolender's parents, Rose Borenstain-Fuchs and Moishe Chiel Fuchs, taken in Koszenica, Poland around 1915. Rose perished in the Chenstochowa labor camp in 1945. Moishe was executed in an unknown camp.
Photograph taken in Koszenica, Poland in the late 1920s. Among those pictured only Renee, her Aunt Tola and youngest uncle in second row survived the war. First row, left to right: Rose Borenstain-Fuchs (mother), Renee, Grandmother Borenstain, Yitzchak Fuchs (brother), Grandfather Borenstain, rest are cousins and Rose's sister (names not known). Second row, left to right: Moishe Chiel Fuchs (father), Tola Berenstain (maternal aunt), rest are cousins and uncles (names not known).
Photograph taken in 1925 or 1926 in Koszenica, Poland. First row, left to right (seated): great uncle (grandmother's brother-Sokol), Grandmother Fuchs, Renee, Grandfather Fuchs, Moishe Chiel Fuchs (father). Second row, left to right (standing): Aaron Fuchs, Elieazer Fuchs, Charna Fuchs, unknown, unk., unk., Simcha Fuchs.
Photograph was taken in Krakow, Poland in the 1930s. Saul was hidden by a Polish family during the war but was later betrayed by them when his money ran out. He was executed near the end of the war.
Photograph taken in Lipnica, Poland in the 1930s. All perished in the Holocaust except Chaskel Kolender. Chaskel had fled east at the outbreak of the war and found himself in Russian-controlled eastern Poland. He ended up surviving the war in Siberia. First row, left to right: Unknown, Yosel Eizen (cousin), Unknown, Chaskel Kolender (paternal uncle). Second row, left to right: Rebecca Kolender (father's sister), next 4 are cousins (names not known), Pearl Kolender (father's sister).
This 1941 false identification was used by Anna Philine Nathans-Paerl, mother of Vera Nathans. Anna used this identification during the war until it was discovered that she was Jewish and then she was sent to Bergen-Belsen.
This 1942 photograph was taken in Graulhet, France, and shows Francine and her friends. Front row, left to right: Suzanne [?]; Maurice Rubinsztein; Francine Ajzensztark. Back row, left to right: Annette Lautard; Henri [?]; Suzanne Ajzensztark, Francine's sister.
ID card was issued by a Jewish chaplain in the U.S. army and sanctioned by city hall in Pocking, Germany on August 21, 1945. Among the information on the card is Pincus' date of liberation (May 5, 1945) and his Auschwitz prisoner number (161253). Pincus is still wearing his jacket from Auschwitz.
This memo from the Union of Jewish Communities of Yougoslavia, Autonomous Relief Committee, Information Section, effectively ended Martha Bauer's search for her brother Rene. The Union of Jewish Communities had apparently cared for the group of immigrants that included Rene while they were refugees enroute to Palestine. After the German invasion of Serbia in the spring of 1941, the refugees were rounded up and put into a concentration camp near Sabac. Most of the men were executed over two days in October 1941 in the town of Zasavica.
Photograph was taken in Munich, Germany in 1946. Pincus is in the center of the photograph. His uncle, Chaskel Kolender, is standing in the back row, far right. The rest are friends (names not known).
Photograph was taken by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in January, 1947 while Renee and Michael were still aboard ship. The original photograph is in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.
Photograph was taken at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1951. Pincus, not yet a U.S. citizen, was drafted and served two years in the army. He was stationed in Germany for six months.
1993 photograph of house where Pincus lived before WWII and during his years in the ghetto. Because the house was located within the German-created map of the ghetto, Pincus did not have to move.
Abe Dumas was born on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, in 1913, to Esther Read and Mendel Dumas, who emigrated from Lithuania in the first decade of the twentieth century. The couple followed Esther's brother Frank Read, who had settled in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Mendel joined Frank in his mercantile store, until he opened his own business in nearby Bonneau. In this interview, Abe describes his father's dedication to making a living in America. Besides maintaining the Bonneau enterprise, Mendel invested in land for timber and farming, and opened stores in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1912, he and Frank Read built a five and dime store on the corner of King and Spring streets. Three years later, they parted company and Mendel bought a pawn shop at 220 King Street. By 1918, he had moved Esther and their five children (Lenora, Mary, twins Abe and Joe, and Yetta) to Charleston. "He knew," Abe reports, "that he could not raise a Jewish family in Bonneau." The Dumases were members of Brith Sholom, one of two Orthodox synagogues in Charleston. Abe notes the family was not very observant, although he and his brother celebrated their bar mitzvahs. The interviewee recalls how he and Joe began peddling around age twelve and began working in Mendel's Charleston store at sixteen, while their father commuted to Bonneau. They loved the work but didn't care for the pawn shop business in particular. In 1930, they switched to clothing and were very successful, which Abe attributes to carrying uniforms and hunting apparel. "Then when we moved to King and Society, we had there one of the largest operations of men's and family clothing in the city of Charleston. And it still is." Abe discusses growing up in Charleston, and the subtle antisemitism he observed in his early years. He remembers "divisiveness" between the Reform and Orthodox congregations, but says it no longer exists since an "economic level of parity or better came into existence." He attended the College of Charleston and, in 1936, married Dorothea "Dottie" Shimel Dumas. They had two children, Lynn and Carol. Abe reflects on what Americans knew about the Holocaust during World War II and the failure of the United States and other countries to assist Jewish refugees. Dumas tells the story of meeting George Gershwin in 1933 on Folly Beach, while Gershwin was in the area collaborating with DuBose Heyward on Porgy and Bess. For a related oral history, see the 1996 interview with Joseph Read, Mss. 1035-090. For a related collection, see the Louis M. Shimel papers, Mss. 1055. Although mentioned only briefly in this interview, the Dumases were founding members of Synagogue Emanu-El; see Mss. 1141 for the congregation records.
This photograph in the Joe Engel collection is of unknown origin. It appears to be a snapshot of a postwar advertisement picturing a child searching for relatives. The text under the photo appears to read: "My name is Eva Marguiles (?). I was born in Lvov (Lemberg), Poland in 1941-1942. If you are a relitive [sic] of mine or (illegible) friends- please contact me...."
Postcard issued by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles as part of a campaign to urge the Reagan administration to bar Austrian presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States.
Postcard issued by the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna and Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles as part of a campaign to induce the government of Germany to abolish the statute of limitations for Nazi war crimes.
