Members of the Polish air force fought through the defeat of their own country in 1939 and then alongside the French until the fall of France the following year, when they made their varied ways to Britain. There the Poles were among the Air Force's most successful aces. During the Battle of Britain, the pilots of the all-Polish Kosciuszko Squadron - 303 Squadron to the RAF - downed more German planes ...

Copyright Holder: Instytut Polski i Muzeum im. Gen. Sikorskiego w Londynie

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Uniform patch issued to Dr. Edmund Lusthaus when he served in the 2nd Polish Corps from 1941-1945. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and seventeen days later, the Soviet Army invaded from the east. Lusthaus was captured and taken to a camp for Polish prisoners of war in Novosibirsk, Siberia, where he served as a physician. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Polish POWs were released ...

Copyright Holder: Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych

Decorative brown leather wallet purchased by Dr. Edmund Lusthaus in Egypt circa 1943 where he was stationed with the 2nd Polish Corps, British Army, as a medical officer. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Lusthaus was drafted into the Polish Army. Seventeen days later, the Soviet army invaded from the east. Lusthaus was captured and taken to a camp for Polish prisoners of war in Novosibirsk, ...

Based on primary and secondary sources in numerous languages (including Polish, German, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Russian and English). Includes bibliographical references (pages 389-405) and index. xiv, 437 pages : maps ; 27 cm

Copyright Holder: Instytut Polski i Muzeum im. Gen. Sikorskiego w Londynie

Halutzka or peasant blouse with embroidered flowers made by Shoshana Galicki Feizensztajn, about 16 years old, as a parting gift for her sister Chava when she left their hometown of Siedlce, Poland, for Palestine in 1933. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939. Siedlce was in Soviet controlled territory. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. German forces occupied ...

Marvin Dorf (1923-2006) was born in the Bronx, New York City, to Adolf (1894-1982) and Rose (nee Goldman, 1899-?) Dorf. Rose had emigrated from Russia in 1906, and Adolf emigrated from Austria in 1914, and found work as a tinsmith. Marvin had two older sisters, Sylvia (later Katz, 1920-2008) and Mildred (later Borgerson, 1921-?), as well as a younger sister, Estelle (later Rosenberg, 1928-2006). While ...

As World War I dragged on into 1915, German armies along the Western Front settled into stalemate with entrenched British and French forces. But in the East the picture was quite different. The Kaiser's army routed the Russians, took possession of Polish territory, and attempted to create a Polish satellite state. Elusive Alliance delves into Germany's three-year occupation of Poland and explains why ...

September 1940. Polish Army officer Witold Pilecki deliberately walked into a Nazi German street round-up in Warsaw and became Auschwitz Prisoner No. 4859. He had volunteered for a secret undercover mission: smuggle out intelligence about the new German concentration camp, and build a resistance organization among prisoners. Pilecki's clandestine intelligence, received by the Allies in 1941, was among ...

This collection contains materials related to the research and investigation of perpetrators of war crimes such as: witness testimonies after the invasion of Germany in September 1939, reports of crimes committed against Poles on Polish territory and in Germany, lists of local German officials, Gestapo chief officers, guards of concentration camps, data related to concentration camps, German police ...

Concentration camp uniform jacket worn by Benjamin Milich, age 30, in Auschwitz, Kaufering, and Dachau concentration camps from August 1944 to May 1945. The jacket has a hidden pocket and a patch with his Dachau prisoner ID number, 96699. Benjamin, his mother Rajzla, and his siblings Abram, Leib, and Anita lived in Łódź. In spring 1940, they were forced into the ghetto. In July 1942, Abram was sent ...

Wilhelm Beigel was born on May 18, 1927, in Vilna, Poland, (Vilnius, Lithuania) to Ferdinand, born on June 25, 1899, in Lemberg, Austria (L’viv, Ukraine), and Liza Kowarsky, born on October 20, 1904, in Vilna. Ferdinand was an officer in the Polish Army. Liza’s parents, Zelik (d. 1935) and Musia Kowarsky owned the Hotel Bristol, the largest hotel in Vilna. The Beigel family lived there with 14 extended ...

Part 1. Warsaw uprising of 1944, which began on August 1 and lasted for 63 days. Film opens with poor quality still photos and names of uprising fighters. Credits and music play. Footage of the people of Warsaw preparing for the uprising. They prepare bandages, guns, bullets. People create barricades and lay communications cable. Fighting in the streets. Men swimming and shaving in a river. Interior ...

Alex Finder (born Zysiek Finder Jassy) was born on May 1, 1919 in Kraków, Poland. A Polish Jew, during the war he was imprisoned in the Kraków ghetto and several concentration camps including Płaszów, Gusen, Gunskirchen, and Mauthausen. He was liberated from Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria by the US armed forces. After the war, he lived at the Bad Ischl displaced persons camp in Austria ...

Copyright Holder: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma

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Shmuel Czyzyk was born on February 8, 1924 or 1925, in Pulawy, a district of Lublin, Poland, to Chaim and Basia. Chaim was born in 1897 in Konskowola to Szyja and Miriam Czyzyk. Basia was born in Pulawy in 1898 to Leib and Simcha Franenberg. Shmuel had two sisters, Bronia, born 1920, and Golda, born 1928, and one brother, Moshe, born 1922. The family was observant Jews. His father was employed as a ...

Striped concentration camp uniform jacket issued to 20 year old Abraham Lewent in November 1944 in Buchenwald concentration camp and worn in several other camps until his liberation by American troops in April 1945. After the collapse of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in May 1943, Abraham and his father Raphael were deported to Majdanek concentration camp where his father was killed. After two months, ...

Izac Holcman was born in Warsaw, Poland on February 15, 1902 to Izrael and Lea Holcman (née Grynsztejn). He was the youngest of two boys, with an older brother named David (1898-). Izac graduated from a secondary school in Warsaw in 1917 and went on to take a course in bookkeeping - a profession he retained for much of his life. At the age of 20, Izac joined the Polish Armed Forces as a member of the ...