My prior posts – “The Tragedy of Israel in Poland” by Herman Bernstein, and “If It Be True … A Terrible Indictment Against Russia” by ‘Mentor’ of The Jewish Chronicle – presented a vivid and detailed literary “picture” of what befell Eastern European Jewry amidst military operations of the Central Powers and Imperial Russia, during the early part of the Great War in 1914 and 1915.
Words alone, however, as compelling as they be, are by nature limited in the force of their message. To that end, in its issue of October 27, 1915, The Jewish World (the Chronicle’s brother publication), amidst portraits of Jewish soldiers of the British Commonwealth, published a photo spanning two pages, and depicting a subject entirely different: An image of Russian-Jewish refugees.
The picture is shown below:
Notably, the location and date of the image, let alone the identity of the photographer, are not given.
The only information about the photo is what is presented in the caption: “One of the many pathetic scenes which are, unfortunately, only too common on the highways of Russia in these days, showing Russo-Jewish families who have fled their homes to escape the ravages of war and are undecided which way to turn or what to do.”
A central aspect of the image is literally present in its very center: A boy in late childhood appears to be gazing directly at the photographer – pensively, motionlessly – even as the attention of other persons in the image is fixed elsewhere. Yet, in the boy’s very anonymity there is a host of questions that are unanswered, which will forever remain unanswered.
Who was he?
Did he (and his family) survive the war?
By the close of the Great War, did they eventually return to their home?
If not, where did they settle – elsewhere in Russia; in Poland?
If not, did they emigrate elsewhere?
If so, where?
Western Europe?
The United States?
South America?
The Yishuv?
If his family remained in Eastern Europe, and they survived the years of chaos, savagery, and anti-Jewish persecution that followed the end of the Great War, what then?
Assuming that he was roughly ten years of age in 1915, by 1941, he would have been in his mid-thirties when the Third Reich invaded Poland in September of 1939, and the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
What then…?