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Displaying items 361 to 380 of 10,135
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  1. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of Pierazky, Binyamin-Eliyahu, a 27 year old metal-worker and factory engineer from Warsaw. He describes how he fled from Poland with his six brothers, and lost them along the way. He describes train bombardments and fires that burned through the night, and the abandonment of the wounded by Polish military in retreat, despite the attempt of a Jewish doctor to force them to take the wounded. Some of the refugees were killed along the way as the group made its way by train to Lublin. Eventually the author arrived alone to Vilnius where he was helped by kind people, and was attemptin...

  2. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of S. L., a yeshiva student from Goworowo, who studied in yeshivas in Bialystok and Ostrow Mazowieck, b. April 28, 1918. He tells of how he returned to Goworowo to be with his parents the day before the war. When the Germans entered town they took upward of 500 young men, Jews and Poles, first to Ostrow Mazowiecki, and from there by train to Germany, to Hohenstein in Ostpreußen where the prisoners were put to work in a camp situated near the WWI memorial. He describes the difficult conditions in the camp, the lack of food and water while they were in transport, and the brutal shoo...

  3. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of Abraham R., 20 year old from Lomza. He tells of the German bombardments of Lomza and noted a single Jewish casualty, then tells of his own deportation to a detainee-camp in Rastenburg, Germany (now Ketrzyn, Poland), where about 1300 Jews were held without food. Each night the prisoners received a loaf of bread per 4 men, and no more. He describes how on arrival of Polish prisoners, the Germans and Poles took the Jews' clothes, and how three men died because they couldn't handle the cold, hunger and disease. he was in the camp for three weeks, and was freed eventually together w...

  4. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of J. K. a 30 year old trader from Przemyśl who returned there from Warsaw at the beginning of October. He describes how the city was initially taken over by the Germans who bombarded it; many people were left homeless. During the first days of the German occupation all Jewish stores were looted, with the Germans recording a film claiming the Christian population of the city looted them. Additionally, the author describes mass arrests of the Jewish intelligentsia of the city, and their mass execution. The Jews were required to pay large sums to free the arrestees but received only...

  5. [Memorandum for the conference of the High Commission for German refugees]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    The file contains a memorandum regarding a conference for the High Commissionar for German refugees, which took place on the 2nd. of June 1936 is Geneva. The 'National Committee for German refugees' tried to present their views and proposals for the conference. Topics of the memorandum were questions of German emigration to Czechoslovakia. Specifically the legal standing of the German emigrants in Czechoslovakia and the right of asylum. But the right of asylum is not just a matter of legal arrangement, also the social problems of emigration were demonstrated in the memorandum. Furthermore t...

  6. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of Lejzer-Isaac Gottlieb, a yeshiva student from Mir. He left Opatów two days before the Germans entered it, for Bialystok. He describes the German aerial bombardment, and a flood of refugees into Bialystok, as well as the burning of Torah scrolls by the Germans. He fled on through Vawkavysk, and eventually found the Soviets in Navahrudak, where he notes Polish resistance and shots fired by partisans. He mentions the rumours f the burning of several Jewish communities by the germans' bombardment or soldier actions, but cannot confirm these rumors. Protocol No. 28 is an extract fro...

  7. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of J. L., 18 year old yeshiva student from Koden, a small town by Biala Podlaska of 100 Jewish families. He tells how most of the Jewish population left Koden for Brisk before the Germans entered it, while the Christian population remained. He continued his studies in the Brisk yeshiva. Protocol No. 151 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect evidence on the condition of the Jews in Poland under Nazi occupation.

  8. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 86]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of Marcus Z., 23 years old compositor from Warsaw. He left Warsaw with some of his young friends and was caught in a refugee camp in Mińsk Mazowiecki, where he describes thousands of refugees living in difficult conditions. He returned to Warsaw where he heard German artillery, and severe bombardment that resulted in fires that killed many and spread for several days due to lack of water. Protocol No. 86 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a com...

  9. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of G., a woman from Kutno. She describes the bombings and the ruin of the town, which was burnt completely leaving not a single house whole. The casualties were so numerous the hospitals and public buildings were packed with them. Gąbin and Plock, the neighboring towns, were also destroyed. She describes how after the occupation of Kutno by the Germans the local Jewish intelligentsia was arrested and conscripted to forced labor with the assistance of the local Poles, and Yom Kippur services were forbidden. She and her 2-year-old child left Kutno to find her husband who was in the ...

  10. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 9]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    In his statement, the 25 years old clerk Lejb Rozencwajg from Warsaw describes his excape to Lublin in September 1939. Because of an order issued by the major of Warsaw, refugees were forced to go back to the city to defend it. Rozencwajg depicts how Jews, also religious Jews, volunteered to dig defense trenches in Warsaw but faced antisemetic reactions from polish Christians. Furthermore, he describes how life rapidly changed for the Jewish community after the occupation by the Nazis. Protocol No. 9 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish r...

  11. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of Motl Greier, 19 year old yeshiva student, son of a leather merchant, from Markuszów, by Lublin. He reports that at the beginning fo the war he was at his parents' home, in Markuszów, and left it for Lublin. The heavy bombardment of German planes destroyed the town almost entirely with incendiaries. From Lublin he set out on his way to Lukow which was under Russian control. He describes antisemitism and anger toward Jews among the Polish population specifically because they welcomed the Soviet army. He recounts an account of a man he met on the road concerning the fate of Lukow'...

  12. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of A. K., b. 1908, a mill worker from Wyszków. He describes the bombings and the flooding of refugees from Mlawa, Przasnysz and Pultusk, and the panic which caused the residents of Wyszków to flee into the forests, where they lost their way. They were overtaken by the German occupation in the city of Stoczek, where men, both Jews and Poles, were taken and marched out into the forest and to a camp at Ostrów Mazowiecka where military and civilian personnel were separated. He describes discrimination between Jews and Poles along the way, and the hunger in the camp. Eventually the Jew...

  13. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of M. T., a 22 year old baker from Poręba-Kocęby, a small town oin the Ostrow Mazowiecka district. According to the author of the testimony, the town was not damaged by bombardment, and no local casualties fell. The Germans entered the town and looted the Jewish homes; in some homes they even broke down the walls. Then they ordered men to come with them, saying they were going to work, and held them in a church for several days without food. The Poles that were held with them were fed, and abused the Jews, taking from them money and their watches, together with the German soldiers...

  14. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of A. W., 20 year old trader from Goworowo. He describes the occupation by the Germans, then by the Russians, of the Bialystok area, and tells how, under German occupation, the Jews were burned inside the synagogue in the town of Czyzew-Osada. The town of Zambrow had its synagogue and study hall, with their torah scrolls, burned and bombarded. Protocol No. 54 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect evidence on the condition of...

  15. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 8]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Protocol No. 8 is an English translation from original Yiddish. It was given by the 23 years old tailor Ajzenszer Jechiel about his escape from Warsaw on the 7-8 October 1939. In it, he describes bombardements and intense shootings in Warsaw and the advancements of the German troops. Furthermore, he depicts the different treatment of Christians and Jewish Poles by the Nazis. He shows how Jews were maltreated and their property taken and divided among the christan population. When Jechiel and some others were captured by the Nazis, they were badly tortured and kept in Transit Concentration C...

  16. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 107]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of L. B-ca., 38 year old social worker from Lodz. She describes the entry of the Germans into Lodz, and the evacuation of men, Jewish and Christian, of military age, preceding it. The local German ethnic population greeted the German army with joy, and the Jews avoided them, and generally avoided the streets for fear of persecutions. The commandant of the city called to him the two rabbis and after they were beaten they were brought into the synagogue and ordered to burn the Torah scrolls. They refused and were beaten again, their beards torn. The Germans issued orders forbidding ...

  17. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of B. H., 18 year old student from Vishnevets. He states that while the town had no military operations of any kind or any military presence, it was bombarded heavily by German airplanes, and the Jewish sections of the town suffered heavy damage, with one street completely destroyed. There were about sixty people killed, twenty of them Jews. Protocol No. 155 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect evidence on the condition of ...

  18. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 109]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of H. M., 33 year old trader from Hrubieszów. The city was taken over by the Germans, and then by the Russians, who arrested people as provocateurs. The Russians left the city after only a short time, returning it to German control. The Germans executed Jews in town and kidnapped Jews for conscript labor. After the German reentry, the Polish population attempted to dismiss the Jews from the civil guard and city authorities, until the guard had been dismantled by the Germans and replaced with a Ukrainian contingent. With which the Polish population cooperated against the Jews. The ...

  19. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Protocol No 118 is a testimony by Israel A., a jeshiva student from Lyda, a city near Minsk. He states that on the 1st of September 1939 he saw the first german airplanes above Lyda and one week later the city was bombed. After the polish military had left the city on the 17th of September, the inhabitants formed a people's militia, Jews and Polish people together. The head of the militia was the mayor of the city who also prevented anti-jewish riots. He further states that the Bolshevik which entered the town on the 19th of September were warmly welcomed by the Jews. On the 22nd of Septemb...

  20. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of J. F., 27 years old lacemaker from L'viv. After initial bombardments, he describes the German control of L'viv, and the sabotage of efforts to establish Jewish civilian authorities after the invasion. He describes the welcome of the Ukrainian population and their actions against the Jews of the city by serving as informers. Likewise, he described the fleeing of the Jewish population from the neighboring city of Krystynopol, and the temporary retaking of it by the Polish military. The Jews of Krystonopol received the Poles with joy and resisted the Germans with Molotov cocktail ...