Recognizing and naming people who appear in the film and photograph collection of the new Holocaust History Museum often leads to new discoveries, and can sometimes turn anonymous photographs and film clips—created as German propaganda—into unique historical documents, which tell the story of individual Jews.

Siauliai:
Nazi Propoganda as Jewish Historical Evidence

by Nina Springer-Aharoni

The main German archive, the Bundesarchive, holds all the edited German newsreels created between 1933 and 1945. Although it is the largest collection of documentary films from the Nazi period, surprisingly few of its newsreels refer to Jews. Under the direction of the Minister of Propaganda Josef Goebbels, heavy secrecy was maintained regarding the murder operations and activities of the Einsatzgruppen. In November 1941, soldiers were officially prohibited from taking pictures in the field.

As part of the exhibition dealing with the implementation of the Final Solution in the new Holocaust History Museum, two rare and original films are presented. The first is the only known full documentation of a massacre carried out by the Einsatzgruppen, beginning with the moment the victims are brought to the murder site. Reinhard Wiener, a German soldier who served in the navy, apparently made the film in Liepaja in late July 1944. According to Wiener’s testimony, he happened upon the scene by chance.

The second film is taken from 30-minute edited newsreel, made by a German propaganda unit. The 90-second segment, shown on 16 July 1941, depicts a group of Jews disembarking from trucks with shovels in their hands as a German voice-over comments: “Idle Jews are forced to dig.”

The film does not name the location or the Jews portrayed. They were identified for the first time by Museum researchers who matched them to a single archived photograph (below). This photo shows the same group of Jews standing on parade in front of a prison wall in Siauliai, Lithuania. By comparing the information from the photograph with survivors’ testimonies and Pages of Testimony, most of the individuals in the picture were identified.


Standing scond from right is Rabbi Yitzhak Nachumowski, the town Dayan (Jewish court judge); third from right, the tallest individual is Aaron Puhn from Klaipeda (Memel); fourth from right is Kadish Shapira; fifth from right, Rabbi Aaron Bakst; seventh from right, Shimon Rosenberg, and on the extreme left, Attorney Azriel Abramovich.

Jewish settlement in Siauliai began in the late 17th century; at the outbreak of World War II, some 8,000 Jews lived there. In the early stages of the occupation, the Lithuanians—encouraged by the Germans—transferred many Jews from their homes to the local prison, including rabbis and leading figures in the community.

In his journal Records from the Valley of Death—Memories from Siauliai Prison, Aaron Pik, the town doctor (who did not survive) wrote: “On Shabbat, 28 June, I saw Rabbi [Abraham Isaac] Nachumowski on the sidewalk near our home in his Shabbat clothes, surrounded by policemen and [pro-Nazi] partisans, who were dragging him off to prison. On the same day, they also arrested Chief Rabbi Bakst and his son-in-law Rabbi [Isaac] Rabinovich, as well as Rabbi Nachumowski’s son… In prison they were subject to terrible torments… and photographed from the front and from behind… Where have they been taken? Are they still alive?”

It is now known that after subjecting this group of men to humiliations in the prison yard, the Germans then herded them to the Kuziai forest (some 15 km northwest of Siauliai) on 29 June 1941. There they were filmed being forced to dig their own graves. They were murdered that same day.

Thus the film clip, originally used as Nazi propoganda, was turned into Jewish historical evidence commemorating the final moments of a group of Jews from Siauliai.

The author was Film and Photo Curator for the new Holocaust History Museum, and is now Senior Photo Advisor, Museums Division.

Plonsk:
Identifying a Town

By Efrat Komisar

Displayed in the Map of the Ghettos in the new Holocaust History Museum is footage of a town, filmed in 1940 by photographer Horst Loerzer. The title of the film, Der Jude im Regierungsbezirk Zichenau 1940 (The Jews of the Ciechanów District 1940), was apparently given by the photographer himself. The town shown in the film was therefore originally identified as Ciechanów itself, a small town north of Warsaw. As indicated in the title, the film shows Jews in the town, but also reflects the photographer’s attitude towards them. In one scene, he arranges them in a row in front of the camera and photographs them in profile. Such scenes—familiar from Nazi propaganda films as well as amateur movies—are meant to present “Jewish physiognomy,” reflecting the racist attitude of the photographers.


Appearing in the footage are signs hanging above shop front doors—a hatter named Hersz Pokorski, a grocer named Hersch Mendel Dancygier, a shoemaker named Shimon Pater and a tailor named Chaim Grinberg—which formed a vital basis for investigation. Some of the shop owners may even appear in the film; one of the two men standing in the doorway of Grinberg’s shop, for example, may be Grinberg himself.


Many of the shops also bear a sign identifying the Jewish ownership of the premises.

A search of the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names failed to find the name Shimon Pater. Nor was there any record of a Chaim Grinberg or a Dancygier from Ciechanów. However, a Page of Testimony for an individual named Hersz Wolef Pokorski was located, submitted by Hersz’s sister. It stated that Pokorski had indeed been a hatter, just as indicated on the sign in the film, and that he was murdered in Auschwitz. However, Pokorski did not live in Ciechanów; he was born and lived in Plonsk. This was the beginning of the journey in identifying the town.

The birthplace of David Ben-Gurion, Plonsk is a town some 35 km south of Ciechanów. Prior to the start of the war, over 5,000 Jews lived in the town. It was occupied by the Germans on 5 September 1939, and a ghetto was formed in May 1941 which housed some 8,000 Jews from Plonsk and its vicinity. Between October and December 1942 the Jews of Plonsk were deported to Auschwitz. Almost everyone perished.

In order to confirm the town was indeed Plonsk, additional sources needed to be checked. In the Plonsk phone directory from 1929, Pokorski’s name was listed as a manufacturer of caps. His father, Yisrael Nakhman, was also listed as a resident of Plonsk in records from the 19th century. But the identification of the town was not based only on information about the Pokorski family. The phone directory also had a listing for the grocer by the name of H. Dancygier.

The new theory was further corroborated by information found in the Memorial Book of Plonsk and Vicinity, which lists Dancygier and Pokorski as residents of the town who perished in the Holocaust.

The Pages of Testimony again proved their value when the last scene of the film, which takes place at the town cemetery, was examined. One of the headstones is engraved: “Esther, wife of Beniamin Jakubowicz.” Her year of death is recorded as 1935.


Another search of the Names Database revealed that Esther’s son Eliasz (Eliahu) and his family were Holocaust victims who had lived in Plonsk.

The headstone was the final piece in the jigsaw needed to clarify the town’s identity beyond doubt. The clip is thus an important historical document that gives a unique insight into the world of the photographer and those he filmed, and provides important testimony on the life of Jews in Plonsk at the time of the Nazi occupation.

The author works in the Film Archives, and researched footage for the new Holocaust History Museum.

The photographs were taken from the film Der Jude im Regierungsbezirk Zichenau 1940, courtesy zero film GmbH.

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