By May 1945 six million European Jews had been murdered by the Nazis and their allies. Much of Europe lay in ruins. Allied soldiers confronting the concentration camps for the first time found - amidst the scattered mounds of corpses and ash - “survivors” suffering from disease and starvation, many of whom would perish in the forthcoming days and months. Homeless and unable - or unwilling - to be repatriated to their countries of origin, many were housed in Displaced Persons camps throughout the Allied zones of occupation. These DP camps, often former military or even concentration camps, were themselves overcrowded, and just as often the Jews had to share space with their very persecutors. Many Jews attempted to emigrate to Palestine despite stringent quotas on immigration imposed by the British government attempting to mollify the Arabs. As a consequence, many emigrated “illegally” with the assistance of the Jewish Brigade and Haganah, through the underground Bricha Movement. A 1947 United Nations resolution to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs was to be rejected by the Arabs. Britain would end its mandate and withdraw from Palestine in May 1948. Israel established its provisional government in the same month, giving Jews their own homeland and unrestricted immigration. President Truman himself loosened restrictions on quotas of displaced persons, and approximately 28,000 Jews were able to immigrate to the US. The Nuremberg trials were a consequence of Allied efforts to take legal action against Germany as a criminal state. The first tribunal consisted of eight judges, drawn from each of the Allied countries. Twenty-one former Nazi leaders stood trial. The Tribunal enshrined for the first time in jurisprudence and international law the concept of “genocide,” as well as a typology of war crimes to be utilized by the United Nations. In the ensuing years many courts - both international and domestic - would conduct trials of accused war criminals.
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection
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Enigma Machine
2014.1.238
A color photograph of the Enigma machine.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Enigma machine invented by Germans for transmitting secret military information. Alan Turing and others at Bletchley Park's cipher program in England were able to break the Enigma code which helped with the Allied war effort.
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Letter from Mavis Batey
2014.1.239
Front: A note written in blue ink on white paper in English.Back: The letter continues. Includes a signature.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A letter written by Mavis Batey, one of the leading code breakers at Bletchley Park in World War II, and crucial to the success of D-Day. Along with Dilly Knox and Margaret Rock, she was instrumental in breaking the Enigma cipher used by the German secret service, the Abwehr. Bletchley Park was a mansion 50 miles northwest of London, and was the top secret wartime home of Government Communications Headquarters, or "Station X." Mrs. Batey's husband Keith Batey also worked at Bletchley.
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I.G. Farben Liquidation 200 Reichmarks Bond
2015.2.30
Front: Green paper with textured green background. Title in green writing over black background. Beneath the title is a rectangle with an ornate green border, 200 written in every corner. On either side are two portraits of men. On the left are Liebio and Wohler, on the left are Kekule and Hofmann. A signature on either side. The bottom has four coupons for varying amounts.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
IG Farben was a giant German chemical industry conglomerate notorious for its role in committing war crimes during the Holocaust. Its pro-Nazi directorship collaborated with the Nazi leadership to produce quantities of Zyklon B, the Hydrocyanic acid insecticide used to gas millions of Jews at extermination centers, through its Degesch facility. Its facility near Auschwitz, Buna, was built to produce synthetic rubber: at least 50,000 prisoners died during its construction from starvation and exposure. Indeed, the bodies of prisoners were buried where they fell, in the wet cement. The company was seized by the Allies in 1945, its assets liquidated, and many executives tried for war crimes at Nuremberg. It continues to be in the process of liquidation.
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Mass Produced Postcard to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, from the Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, Yeshiva University, Los Angeles, California
2012.1.30
Front: Black and white photograph of a man in a Nazi uniform with his foot on a dead body, and two hanging bodies next to him. Titled, "This Murderer Has Not Been Found!"Back: Printed postcard lines and information about German laws.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard from the Wiesenthal Center. Simon Wiesenthal was a Holocaust survivor and writer, who after the war devoted his life to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.
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Envelope from a German Displaced Persons Camp
2012.1.173
Brown envelope addressed to "Hilfswerk Ostpreussen, Amerika Comitee Forth Relif (DE)" in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Cover from Oksbol Displaced Persons Camp in Denmark sent to New York to relief organization by Otto Klein.
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Jakob Machat
2012.1.505
A black and white photograph of a man in a concentration camp uniform.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Original photo of Jakob Machat taken in Palestine, dressed in his own concentration camp prisoner's uniform. This young man later served as a pilot in the IDF Air Force.
[Related item: 2012.1.506]
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Memorial Book in Yiddish
2012.1.550
A black hardcover book with a title in gold Hebrew. Interior includes text in Hebrew and black and white photographs.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Memorial books, known as Yizkor Bikker, are published by individuals or organizations to document the vanished world of Jewish presence in towns, shtetls, villages or cities before the Jewish victims succumbed to the Nazi scourge. Memorial books may vary in scope or style, but all are dedicated to the collection of testimonies and reports, old sepia-toned photographs of people and places, dedications to synagogues and sport teams, holiday gatherings and cemeteries: all an effort to keep memories of loved ones and beloved places alive, remembrances retrieved from the prospect of historical loss and amnesia.
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Recha Freier Israeli Commemorative First Day Cover
2019.2.245
Envelope with image of fields and pastures on left side, includes postage stamp of woman and postage stamp of three children on right side, stamped with image of boy and girl and “Recha Freier” in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Youth Aliyah was founded by Recha Freier on January 30, 1933, the day Hitler took power. With remarkable prescience, she sought to protect German youth from impending doom by sending them to pioneer training camps in Palestine to be educated and absorbed into kibbutzim, the indigenous farming communities. Against extraordinary odds, she helped more than 5,000 Jewish children escape from Germany. Others were smuggled out of Europe during the war to Palestine, the UK, and other countries. Many more came to Palestine between the end of the war and the establishment of the state of Israel. Youth Aliyah also helped Jewish child survivors in DP camps. Freier herself experienced significant opposition from the German Jewish community who thought her methods illegal. She eventually fled to Palestine herself, taking a group of 40 teenagers with her. She was awarded the Israel Prize in 1981 for her efforts in saving the imperiled Jewish children of Nazi Germany and founding Youth Aliyah.
[Related items: 2019.2.246 and 2019.2.247]
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Recha Freier Israeli Commemorative Postcard
2019.2.246
Postcard with black and white portrait of Recha Freier on front, two postage stamps on left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Youth Aliyah was founded by Recha Freier on January 30, 1933, the day Hitler took power. With remarkable prescience, she sought to protect German youth from impending doom by sending them to pioneer training camps in Palestine to be educated and absorbed into kibbutzim, the indigenous farming communities. Against extraordinary odds, she helped more than 5,000 Jewish children escape from Germany. Others were smuggled out of Europe during the war to Palestine, the UK, and other countries. Many more came to Palestine between the end of the war and the establishment of the state of Israel. Youth Aliyah also helped Jewish child survivors in DP camps. Freier herself experienced significant opposition from the German Jewish community who thought her methods illegal. She eventually fled to Palestine herself, taking a group of 40 teenagers with her. She was awarded the Israel Prize in 1981 for her efforts in saving the imperiled Jewish children of Nazi Germany and founding Youth Aliyah.
[Related items: 2019.2.245 and 2019.2.247]
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Recha Freier Israeli Commemorative Postcard
2019.2.247
Postcard with black and white image of people dancing together in large circle on front, two postage stamps on left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Youth Aliyah was founded by Recha Freier on January 30, 1933, the day Hitler took power. With remarkable prescience, she sought to protect German youth from impending doom by sending them to pioneer training camps in Palestine to be educated and absorbed into kibbutzim, the indigenous farming communities. Against extraordinary odds, she helped more than 5,000 Jewish children escape from Germany. Others were smuggled out of Europe during the war to Palestine, the UK, and other countries. Many more came to Palestine between the end of the war and the establishment of the state of Israel. Youth Aliyah also helped Jewish child survivors in DP camps. Freier herself experienced significant opposition from the German Jewish community who thought her methods illegal. She eventually fled to Palestine herself, taking a group of 40 teenagers with her. She was awarded the Israel Prize in 1981 for her efforts in saving the imperiled Jewish children of Nazi Germany and founding Youth Aliyah.
[Related items: 2019.2.245 and 2019.2.246]
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Commemorative poster of the Forest for Martyred Children of the Holocaust
2012.1.573
A colorful poster showing a forest on one side and shadowy children on the other, as well as a candle in the foreground. Includes text in Spanish and Hebrew.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Commemorating the 1.5 million children murdered by Nazis in World War II. Spanish and Hebrew.
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Reproduction Photograph with Original Signature of Benjamin Ferencz
2019.2.237
Black and white photograph of man in uniform, “Ben Ferencz” signed in black near bottom. [Related item: 2019.2.238]
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Hungarian by birth, Ferencz’s family emigrated to the United States to escape persecution by the Romanians. After Harvard Law School, the scarcely five-foot-tall Ferencz served in the anti-aircraft unit in World War II. Transferred to Patton’s Third Army, Ferencz became part of a team collecting evidence relating to Nazi war crime trials, and was appointed at age 27 to Chief Prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen trials, wherein all 22 defendants were eventually convicted. He had an important role in post-war reparations programs for victims of Nazi persecution, and eventually returned to New York as a partner in Telford Taylor’s law firm.
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Reproduction Photograph with Original Signature of Benjamin Ferencz
2019.2.238
Black and white photograph of three men looking through papers, man in center pictured sitting, men on either side wearing headphones, “Ben Ferencz” signed in black near bottom.[Related item: 2019.2.237]
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Hungarian by birth, Ferencz’s family emigrated to the United States to escape persecution by the Romanians. After Harvard Law School, the scarcely five-foot-tall Ferencz served in the anti-aircraft unit in World War II. Transferred to Patton’s Third Army, Ferencz became part of a team collecting evidence relating to Nazi war crime trials, and was appointed at age 27 to Chief Prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen trials, wherein all 22 defendants were eventually convicted. He had an important role in post-war reparations programs for victims of Nazi persecution, and eventually returned to New York as a partner in Telford Taylor’s law firm.
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Majdanek za Drutami Zaglady by Piotr Sobolewski and Theresa Zagorowska
2019.2.239
Small book titled “MAJDANEK” in center under image, 36 pages.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Early monograph on Majdanek, the Nazi extermination camp established on the outskirts of Lublin during the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II. Majdanek was also known as Konzentrationslager Lublin and operated from October 1941 until July 1944. Industrial-scale murder of prisoners occurred during “Operation Reinhard,” the Nazi plan to murder all Jews within the General Government territory of Poland.
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Three Young Jewish DPs Depart Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Holding a Homemade Zionist Flag on the First Leg of Journey to Palestine
2022.1.1
Black and white photograph of three young adults leaning out of a window with a flag hanging from a rod. Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Yetti Halpern Beigel (left) was born in Poland, the youngest of nine children. She had worked as a seamstress in the Bochnia Ghetto. She had been transferred to Bergen Belsen and after the liberation was sent to Buchenwald to the US Military Hospital to recuperate. Here she met Magda Weber (left) from Hungary. They later immigrated to Palestine. The unidentified boy in the center is Latvian.