In 1983, my American friend, Harry Birnholz came for a tour to communist Poland. He payed a visit to his father’s family town, Myszkow (yiddish Mishkov ). One of the places he visited was a studio of a local photographer, Mr Bożek, who turned out to have had a huge collection of old photos showing the local life in Myszkow and Żarki. Harry, his wife and I came to Myszkow again, in 2011. The photo studio was still there, as the family has bussiness kept going for more than 80 years now. We are planning to publish the entire photo collection one day.
So far we are showing you a sample of the collection. Can anyone recognise any of these people ? The photos were taken shortly before and during WWII.
- Anonymous couple, man reading a newspaper in yiddish
- Żarki, Local Jews with armbands, Christian population walking around which suggests that the photo had been taken before the ghetto was created.
- Jewish pupils somewhere in Myszkow forest
- A prewar photo from Myszkow or Żarki. A Polish soldier with his friend followed by a Jewish boy
Two hassidim, one smoking cigarette.
- ???
- ???
- Myszków, man reading “Arbeiter Cajtung” magazine
- Unknown Jewish family
