List of Illustrations
1.1 Map of the Congress Poland’s Kielce and Radom Regions and the locations of Pińczów and Chmielnik. Map by the author, after Jarosław Dulewicz, “Jews Living in Kielce Guberniya Border Towns, 1875-1877,” Avotaynu 35, 1 (2019).
1.2 Early 1900s image of the synagogue in Pińczów. George K. Loukomski, Jewish Art in European Synagogues: From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth-Century, Hutchinson & Co., 1947.
1.3 The synagogue in Pińczów. Photograph by the author.
2.1 The synagogue in Chmielnik, renovated and made into a museum of Jewish life in the Kielce region. Photograph by the author.
2.2 The reconstructed altar in the synagogue in Chmielnik. Photograph by the author.
2.3 Izrael K. Poznański factory complex. “Bronisław Wilkoszewski, „Widoki m. Łodzi” – Fabryka Tow. Ak. Poznańskiego,” Bronisław Wilkoszewski, 1896, Museum of the City of Łódź, MHMŁ/I/2096, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bronisław_Wilkoszewski_–_Fabryka_Tow._Ak._Poznańskiego.jpg.
3.1 The Frydmans’ first residence on Aleksandryjska Street. Photograph by the author.
3.2 A model showing the Frydmans’ second address in Łódź in a court near Brzezińska Street. The building no longer exists. Photograph by the author.
4.1 A prewar map of Poland’s eastern part. Map by the author.
4.2 “A staged photo of Hitler while reviewing the move of a Wehrmacht unit,” 1939, see “Hitler in Warsaw: 1939,” War-Documentary, 2020. https://war-documentary.info/hitler-goes-warsaw/.
4.3 “WWII Poland – Bombed Road,” 1939, collection of Marek Tuszynski, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WWII_Poland_-_Bombed_Road.jpg.
4.4 “Polish prisoners of war in Tuchola Forest, 1939,” Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polish_prisoners_of_war_in_Tuchola_Forest.1939.jpg.
5.1 Polish territories annexed by the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Map by author, after a variety of maps, including “Occupation of Poland 1939,” Lonio17, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Occupation_of_Poland_1939_%28b&w%29.png.
5.2 The synagogue on Sienkiewicza Street in Białystok, see “My Life,” Rose Markus Schachner, Museum of Family History. https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/sfoah-schachner-bialystok.htm.
6.1 Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski confers with Nazi generals, see The Worker’s Circle, “Signs of Life and Humanity in the Lodz Ghetto,” posted January 28, 2025, YouTube, 1:47:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeQ273AuhR8.
6.2 The Ghetto location in the city of Litzmannstadt. Map by the author.
6.3 Map of Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Map by the author.
6.4 Jews are moved into the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in February 1940. German Federal Archive.
6.5 One of the Ghetto’s foot bridges. “Polen, Ghetto Litzmannstadt, Hohensteiner Straße, Brücke,” Zermin, 1941, German Federal Archive, Bild 101I-133-0703-20, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-133-0703-20,_Polen,_Ghetto_Litzmannstadt,_Br%C3%BCcke.jpg.
6.6 Ghetto Census records of the Frydman family’s apartment, see Stadtverwaltung Litzmannstadt records, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn507358.
6.7 The Red House, headquarters of Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) unit. Photograph by the author.
6.8 Children labouring in one of the Ghetto’s workshops. German Federal Archive.
7.1 Litzmannstadt Ghetto deportees marching to the train station. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
7.2 “Children from the Marysin colony who were rounded-up during the ‘Gehsperre’ action in the Lodz ghetto, march in a long column towards a deportation assembly point,” 1942, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, Photograph Number 50334. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1522.
7.3 The Radegast train station from which deportees sent from Litzmannstadt Ghetto to Kulmhof and to Auschwitz. Photograph by the author.
7.4 Passenger train from Litzmannstadt arrives at the Kolo station in 1942. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
7.5 “Jewish deportees from the Lodz ghetto who are being taken to the Chelmno death camp, are transferred from a closed passenger train to a train of open cars at the Kolo train station,” c. 1942, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Sidney Harcsztark, Photograph Number 25025. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa5289.
7.6 The foundations of the mill house in the village of Zawadka where deportees from Litzmannstadt Ghetto were held before being taken to their death at Kulmhof. Photograph by the author.
7.7 The location and ground of the Kulmhof death camp. Map drawn by the author based on site visit and after plans by Zdzisław Lorek, The District Museum of Konin.
7.8 Floor plan of the second level of the mansion from which victims were loaded on a gas van. Drawn by the author based on site visit [only the foundation exists] and after plans by Zdzisław Lorek, The District Museum of Konin.
7.9 “Destroyed Magirus-Deutz furniture transport van Kolno Poland 1945,” Archives of the Polish Ministry of Justice, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Destroyed_Magirus-Deutz_furniture_transport_van_Kolno_Poland_1945.jpg.
7.10 A map of the forest’s mass grave site. Map by the author based on site visits and after plans by Zdzisław Lorek, The District Museum of Konin.
7.11 Aron-Szmul Bimke (Pola Frydman’s husband) Ghetto’s work card. When he died in the Ghetto in 1944 the word GESTORBEN (died) was stamped across it. City of Łódź Archives.
8.1 A site plan of a typical work camp along the planned Reichsautobahn (RAB) route. Drawn by the author after description and plans in Matthias Diefenbach and Michał Maćkowiak, Forced labor and motorways between Frankfurt (Oder) and Poznań, 1940‐1945: German Nazi labor camps for Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, and police prisoners and other forced laborers along the Reich Highway under construction. Frankfurt (Oder) – Poznań, 2017. https://www.instytut.net/wp-content/uploads/dokumente/Reichsautobahn-Autostrada.pdf.
8.2 The Frankfurt an der Oder to Posen (Poznań) Autobahn project and work camp model. Photograph by the author.
8.3 Forced labourers digging in a water-filled trench along the Reichsautobahn (RAB) route. German Federal Archive.
9.1 Locations of the Pinnow Bei Reppen and Kreuzsee Bei Reppen labour camps. Drawn by the author based on site visits, a variety of maps, and after Matthias Diefenbach and Michał Maćkowiak, Diefenbach and Maćkowiak, Forced labor and motorways.
9.2 Forced labourers, likely from the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, on their way to or from work near the Kreuzsee Bei Reppen labour camp. German Federal Archive.
10.1 Chaim’s name on a list of Eberswalde’s Märkisches-Metallformwerk labourers. German Federal Archive.
10.2 The Märkisches-Metallformwerk plant. Photograph by the author.
11.1 The arrival area in Birkenau in which Chaim’s group from Eberswalde disembarked. Photograph by the author.
11.2 “Jews from Subcarpathian Rus await selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau,” Bernhardt Walter/Ernst Hofmann, May 1944, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yad Vashem, Photograph Number 77319. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa8528.
11.3 “Jewish women and children who have been selected for death walk in a line towards the gas chambers,” Bernhardt Walter/Ernst Hofmann, May 1944, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yad Vashem, Photograph Number 77298. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa8538.
11.4 Gas chamber interior. Photograph by the author.
11.5 “Jewish men from Subcarpathian Rus who have been, selected for forced labor at Auschwitz-Birkenau, await further processing after having been disinfected and issued underclothing,” Bernhardt Walter/Ernst Hofmann, May 1944, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yad Vashem, Photograph Number 77360. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa8507
12.1 Site plan of the Monowitz labour camp. Drawn by the author.
12.2 One of the remaining IG Farben plant buildings. Photograph by the author.
12.3 “During a tour of the Monowitz-Buna building site, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler shakes hands with one of the engineers supervising the construction,” 1942 July 17–1942 July 18, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, Photograph number 50751. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1036445.
12.4 Barrack interior. Photograph by the author.
13.1 “Dachau, Germany, Camp inmates evacuated from the camp passing through the Bavarian town of Gruenwald, 1945,” photograph by German civilian, Yad Vashem, 3845/2. https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/photos/103151.
14.1 Chaim’s registration card in the Flossenburg concentration camp declaring himself to be a Dachdecker (roofer). German Federal Archive.
14.2 Part of the grounds of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. The small building at the rear is the crematorium. Photograph by the author.
14.3 Chaim’s death march route. Drawn by the author based on Chaim Friedman’s testimony.
15.1 “Passover seder in the Traunstein displaced persons camp,” 1948–1949, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Lucy Gliklich Breitbart, Photograph Number 97206. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1118252.
16.1 Dina and Chaim near Milan, Italy, c. 1948. Author’s personal collection.
16.2 Chaim’s displaced person camp registration card. The last posting, away without leave (AWOL) indicates their departure to Israel. German Federal Archive.
17.1 Dina and Chaim on a visit to Montreal, c.1994. Photograph by the author.
17.2 The Frydman Family Tree. Drawn by the author.