National
"I can still see their faces" is a project created by Golda Tencer, a Polish actress with Jewish origins. Two rows of old tenement houses in the center of the city, dating from 1880-1900, show what Warsaw probably looked like before the war and ultimate destruction of the city. Tencer appealed for people to send in photographs of Polish Jews so that an exhibition could be created commemorating those who died. These large photographs hang on the outer buildings' walls for everyone to see the diversity of Polish Jewry's life. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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"I Can Still See Their Faces" is a project created by Golda Tencer, a Polish actress with Jewish origins. Two rows of old tenement houses in the center of the city, dating from 1880-1900, show what Warsaw probably looked like before the war and ultimate destruction of the city. Tencer appealed for people to send in photographs of Polish Jews so that an exhibition could be created commemorating those who died. These large photographs hang on the outer buildings' walls for everyone to see the diversity of Polish Jewry's life, May 26, 2011. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Segments of the path of the ghetto wall in Warsaw are marked on the pavement, May 24, 2011. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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A soccer stadium is being erected in Warsaw, Poland for Euro Cup 2012. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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A monument to Henryk Sienkiewicz, a Polish journalist and Nobel-prize winning novelist, is located in Lazienki Park in Warsaw, Poland, May 24, 2011. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Henryk Sienkiewicz ashes are placed in a crypt in St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw, Poland. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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A large bronze statue of Frederic Chopin, Poland's greatest composer, is located in Lazienki Park in Warsaw, Poland, May 24, 2011. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Myslewicki Palace, located in Lazienki Park, is one of the few buildings that survived any serious damage during WWII. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Lazienki Palace, also known as Palace on the Isle, is located in Lazienki Park in Warsaw, Poland. In December 1944 the Germans burnt the Palace on the Isle, drilling nearly a thousand holes in its walls for dynamite, intending to blow it up. Fortunately, they didn't have time to do it. After the war the Palace on the Isle was thoroughly reconstructed. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Piotr Wysocki was a Polish lieutenant and leader of the Polish conspiracy against Russian Tsar Nicolas I. In November 1830 he started the November Uprising against Russia. In 1831 he was sentenced to death by Russians, but his sentence was commuted to a 20 years exile in Siberia. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Warsaw is the largest city and capital of Poland. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Warsaw Ghetto Monument commemorates the tens of thousands who lost their lives in the Ghetto Uprising of 1943. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The tallest building in Warsaw, Poland is the Palace of Arts and Culture. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw has two permanent exhibitions. The first is of Jewish art, both religious and secular, and includes this 1722 Sefer Evronot- a body of work that contains all information and rules needed to calculate Jwish calendar. These include the length of months, necessary changes introduced in leap years and exact dates of all holidays in the Jewish liturgical calendar. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Warsaw's Old Town has been placed on the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites as "an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century." (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Handmade wooden dolls are some of the crafts for sale in Warsaw's Old Town, May 25, 2011. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Sokolka, Poland, with a population of 28,000, is located in the eastern part of Poland bordering Belarus, and is situated on the international road and train route Warsaw-Bialystok-Grodno. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Sokolka, Poland, with a population of 28,000, is located in the eastern part of Poland bordering Belarus, and is situated on the international road and train route Warsaw-Bialystok-Grodno. Lake Sokolka is situated southeast of the center of town. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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And old cemetery remains in Sokolka, Poland, with 5-8 headstones, most of them worn away. This is one of the remaining few stones that has faint Hebrew on it. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Museum of Sokolka is situated in the center of town. The unique exhibits, incuding this one on the clothing worn in the past, represent the history of the region from the Tartars to the cultural mix of Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish cultures. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The cemetery located in the "Zaniemansht Forshtat" area of Grodno, Belarus, is in good condition after volunteers have lifted and reset the stones that had fallen over. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Great Synagogue in Grodno, Belarus, seen May 28, 2011, was built in the 16th century. It burned down in 1902 and was rebuilt by the Jewish community in 1907. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Holocaust survivor Gregory Hosid tells a story at the main gate to the Jewish Ghetto in Grodno, Belarus, May 29, 2011. Hosid jumped from the train that was taking him to Treblinka. He ran into another refugee in the snow, a man whose wounds he cleaned, a shoemaker who fixed Hosid's shoes and in turn they saved each other's lives. They joined up with the partisans in the woods to fight the Germans. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Holocaust survivor Gregory Hosid tells a story about how Jews were living in this building in the Jewish Ghetto in Grodno, Belarus, during the war and people hidden in the attic would witness, through the top window, the beatings of the Jews by the German soldiers in the courtyard below. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The site of the destroyed Zanemanye wooden synagogue stood in what was the Jewish neighborhood of Grodno- Forshtat ("before the city"), an elevated area on the banks of the Neman River. Zanemanye means behind the Neman River. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Grodno is located in the western part of Belarus with a population over 300,000. The city is naturally divided into two districts by the Neman River. The left bank district has been built up mainly after WWII. The right bank (pictured) is comprised of the historical center, with architectural and cultural monuments of the 12th to the first half of the 19th century. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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This statue in Grodno, Belarus memorializes the two tank units that liberated Grodno from the Germans in 1944. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Jews first began to settle in the town of Mir, Belarus- about 85km southwest of Minsk, early in the 17th century, long after the town was established. The town, and the castle, was once owned by the Radziwill family. The Germans captured Mir in June of 1941. First they executed Jews on charges of Soviet collaboration. Then they proceeded to take large groups of Jews out of town to be murdered. All those who remained in the town were murdered. Jewish partisans from Mir continued fighting the Nazis until the war ended. Mir, today is a small town with a population of 2,600 people. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Flowers are still placed outside the Oktyabrskaya subway station in Minsk, Belarus, May 30, 2011, to honor the 14 killed and more than 200 injured in the May 11 subway bombing- the worst terrorist attack Belarus has encountered since winning independence from the Soviet Union two decades ago. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War, located in Minsk, Belarus, is believed to be the worldês largest collection of World War II memorabilia. The three floors show weapons, medals, underground publications, general everyday-living items used by the partisans, actual pieces from labor camps and more. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Pit is a memorial on the site of the main execution pit in Minsk, Belarus (5,000 Jews were murdered in one day) with a sculpture depicting the victims. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Old Town in Vilnius, Lithuania is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in recognition of its universal value and originality. It is believed to be one of the largest surviving medieval old towns in Northern Europe. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Until WWII there was a large Jewish community and more than 100 synagogues in Vilnius, Lithuania. The city was even called the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Now only one synagogue, The Choral Synagogue built in 1903, is left. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas is located in the Old Town of Vilnius, Lithuania. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow may be the largest Orthodox church in the world. The building was rebuilt in 2000 after the original was demolished by Stalin. The cathedral was consecrated on the day Alexander III was crowned, May 26, 1883. A year earlier, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted there. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow may be the largest Orthodox church in the world. The building was rebuilt in 2000 after the original was demolished by Stalin. The cathedral was consecrated on the day Alexander III was crowned, May 26, 1883. A year earlier, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted there. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The former yeshiva in Panevezys, Lithuania is now a market/cafe, June 2, 2011. The yeshiva was reestablished in B'nai B'rak, Israel, where it is still flourishing. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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In 1955 only a handful of Jews remained in Panevezys, Lithuania, and the Soviets who controlled the country at the time gave the community a 10 year notice period after which the cemetery was to be bulldozed to be put to "alternative use". This was a common practice on the part of the Soviets. In 1965 - after the 10 year notice period - the cemetery was flattened and converted into park land. A memorial was created and the tombstones that had been taken as foundation stones and walkways during the Holocaust were reclaimed and used for the memorial. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, situated on Red Square in Moscow, was built between 1555 and 1560 on the order of Ivan IV to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Outside of Panevezys, Lithuania, a sign reads "Jewish Genocide Victims Cemetery." 8,000 Jews were killed in the pits during the Holocaust. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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More than 8,000 Jews were killed in August 1941 in the pits outside Panevezys, Lithuania. Germans and their Lithuanian accomplices led the victims from the ghetto to the execution site in groups of 200. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
A group of Hell's Angels walk through Red Square in Moscow, Russia, June 5, 2011. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, situated on Red Square in Moscow, was built between 1555 and 1560 on the order of Ivan IV to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Russian nesting dolls, or matryoshka dolls, are sold throughout Eastern Europe. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Red caviar and pancakes, with sour cream, is found on the menu throughout Eastern Europe. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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"Swan Lake" is performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Russia, June 3, 2011. (Linda D. Epstein/MCT)
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Linda Epstein takes pictures of a remaining Jewish headstone in a cemetery in Sokolka, Poland, May 28, 2011. Epstein traveled to Eastern Europe to learn more about her family's past. (Carol Sue Hai/MCT)
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