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Jewish Life in Europe Before the Holocaust
By the start of World War II, Jews had been living in countries across Europe for centuries. Some adopted the culture and language of their non-Jewish neighbors. Others preserved distinctly Jewish identities and communities.
Jews have lived in Europe for more than two thousand years. The American Jewish Yearbook placed the total Jewish population of Europe at about 9.5 million in 1933. This number represented more than 60 percent of the world's Jewish population, which was estimated at 15.3 million. Most European Jews resided in eastern Europe, with about 5 1/2 million Jews living in Poland and the Soviet Union. Before the Nazi takeover of power in 1933, Europe had a dynamic and highly developed Jewish culture. In little more than a decade, most of Europe would be conquered, occupied, or annexed by Nazi Germany and most European Jews—two out of every three—would be dead.
Portrait of Hilde and Gerrit Verdoner, with four bridesmaids, on their wedding day. The bridesmaids are: Jetty Fontijn (far left), Letty Stibbe (second from right), Miepje Slulizer (right), and Fanny Schoenfeld (standing, back). Amsterdam, the Netherlands, December 12, 1933.
Three generations of a Jewish family pose for a group photograph. Vilna, 1938-39.
The photo was taken during daughter Mina's visit from Montreal. Among those pictured are Mina (Katz) Herman and her daughter, Audrey (front row, second from the right), Itzik Katz, Mina's brother (standing at the far left) and Malka Katz, Mina's mother (front row, center).
Kalman was the oldest of ten children born to poor, devout Jewish parents in a small village in south central Poland. His father supported the family by buying chickens, eggs and vegetables from the peasants and selling them at the Kolbuszowa market a few miles away. Kalman walked to Kolbuszowa each day to attend public school in the morning and religious school in the afternoon.
1933-39: In 1933 Kalman was accepted to study at a renowned rabbinical institute in Lublin. When there was time, he taught himself English from an old grammar book. English became his passion; he asked people to call him "Charlie" instead of Kalman. He focused his sights on immigrating to America and wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt telling her of his wish. She wrote him back an encouraging response. He carried the letter with him for good luck.
1940-44: Kalman escaped with 16 others from the Glogow labor camp, where they had been slave laborers building roads for the Germans. Kalman returned to Kupno. There, he hid in a barn and ventured out each week to get food from a peasant he knew in the village. One night, he was visited by two Jewish friends who had escaped from the Kolbuszowa labor camp and were hiding in the forest. Kalman decided to join them. He spent several months hiding in the forest, and made regular trips into his village for food.
On a trip into Kupno, Kalman was ambushed by some Poles--his former neighbors. A friend from the forest found him with a pitchfork in his chest. Kalman died the next day.
Kornelia was known as Nelly. She was the older of two daughters raised by Jewish parents in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Her father fought in the Hungarian army during World War I. Kornelia attended public school and later worked as a bookkeeper for a soap factory. In 1928 she married Miksa Deutsch, a businessman who sold matches.
1933-39: Kornelia's husband was religious and the Deutsches' three children attended Jewish schools. Miksa and his brother were the sole distributors in Hungary of Swedish-made matches, and the business prospered. In May 1939 the Hungarian government began to limit the number of Jews who could be employed in a business, forcing the Deutsches to fire some of their Jewish employees.
1940-44: In 1940 Miksa was conscripted into the Hungarian army's labor service. Later, he was forced to surrender control of the family business to a brother of the Hungarian prime minister. After Germany occupied Budapest in March 1944, Jews were ordered to move to special houses marked with a Jewish star. In October 1944, Hungarian fascists began rounding up Jews from these houses. Kornelia was offered a job at an orphanage through the Swiss embassy. But on November 15, before she could take the job, she was rounded up.
Kornelia escaped detention, but was recaptured and deported to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp in Germany, where she perished. Her three children survived the war.
Benjamin, called "Benno" by his family and friends, grew up in a religious Jewish household in Amsterdam. Benno's father, a successful diamond manufacturer, was president of the Amsterdam Jewish community. Benno had two younger sisters and enjoyed collecting stamps.
1933-39: After he obtained some work experience in a department store, Benno joined his father in the diamond business. Benno adhered strictly to Jewish law. He loved tennis and skiing, and in 1938, while skiing in Switzerland, he met a girl and fell in love. Sensing that conditions in Europe were worsening for Jews, his girlfriend's family left the Netherlands for the United States in 1939.
1940-41: Benno's girlfriend returned to the Netherlands, and they were married in October 1940. The newlyweds took in a Jewish refugee who was training for agricultural work in Palestine. On June 11, 1941, the Gestapo came to Benno's door, looking for the refugee boarder; in reprisal for the murder of a German, the Nazis were rounding up foreign Jews. When Benno answered the door, the Nazi asked him if he was Jewish, too. Benno said he was, and the Nazi said, "Then you will come, too."
Benno was deported to the Schoorl labor camp in the Netherlands, and then to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he perished at age 22.
In 1933 the largest Jewish populations were concentrated in eastern Europe, including Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Romania. Many of the Jews of eastern Europe lived in predominantly Jewish towns or villages, called shtetls. In many cases, eastern European Jews lived a separate life as a minority within the culture of the majority. They spoke their own language, Yiddish, which combines elements of German and Hebrew. They read Yiddish books, and attended Yiddish theater and movies. Although many younger Jews in larger towns were beginning to adopt modern ways and dress, older people often dressed traditionally, the men wearing hats or caps, and the women modestly covering their hair with wigs or kerchiefs.
In comparison, the Jews in western Europe—including Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium—made up much less of the population and tended to adopt the culture of their non-Jewish neighbors. They dressed and talked like their countrymen, and traditional religious practices and Yiddish culture played a less important part in their lives. They tended to have had more formal education than eastern European Jews and to live in towns or cities.
Civil equality for Jews was guaranteed by law in many countries. Yet European Jews remained beset by antisemitism and social discrimination, and were often victims of violence. Jews could be found in all walks of life, as farmers, tailors, seamstresses, factory hands, accountants, doctors, teachers, and small-business owners. Some families were wealthy; many more were poor. Many children ended their schooling early to work in a craft or trade; others looked forward to continuing their education at the university level. Still, whatever their differences, they were the same in one respect: by the 1930s, with the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, they all became potential victims, and their lives were forever changed.
Last Edited: Sep 24, 2025
Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
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