Studio portrait of a Polish Jewish couple, members of the Szczupacki family.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 15832

Date: Circa 1930
Locale: Sejny, [Bialystok] Poland
Variant Locale: Seiny
Senya
Synee
Photo Designation: LIFE BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST -- Poland -- Family/Friends/Portraits -- Studio Portraits
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Bruce Tapper

Biography: The Szczupacki family earned their living as fish merchants and bus service owners. In the fall of 1939 the Germans deported all of approximately 700 Jews from Sejny. In an effort to save her family photographs, Mrs. Szczupacki approached her neighbor, Mr. Albin Macianis, and asked him keep them until her return after the war. The Szczupackis were deported across the Lithuanian border and eventually came to Lazdijai where they were killed nearby by the Einsatzgruppen in November, 1941. Albin Macianis who helped the Szczupacki family with house chores during Shabbath, hid the photographs in his house, and later left the photographs for safekeeping with the local priest, Stanislaw Astasiewicz. After the liberation he recovered the photographs and continued to hide them until Mr. Bruce Tapper, the donor and a relative of the Szczupacki family came to visit the town in 1991. Mr. Macianis explained that keeping photographs of Jews was punishable by the Germans and later would not be looked favorably upon by his family and neighbors.
Keyword: CLOSE-UPS
FAMILIES (PREWAR JEWISH)
JEWS (POLISH)
STUDIO PORTRAITS
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Bruce Tapper

Source Record ID: Collections: 1996.A.98
: Record last modified: 2015-04-16 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1056813

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