Uncredited Photographer Jewish Partisans Near Pinsk, Belorussia, USSR c.1944
The girl in the leopard print
That’s Faye Schulman! She’s known for her work photographing the Jewish resistance movement in eastern Europe – and, of course, her fabulous coat. As of July ‘17, she’s still alive! Check these out:
“Jewish people didn’t go like sheep to the slaughter … I was a photographer. I have pictures. I have proof.”
She’s also written a memoir. I think theres a book collecting photos of hers as well? But I think it’s harder to get hold of.
She frequently had to hide that she was Jewish from other partisans she worked with out of fear of what they might do (there’s a story about her only eating potatoes during Passover and just never explaining why).
She could only take a small number of the negatives she had to the displaced person camp she was in after the end of the war and had to abandon the rest.
“A partisan came in and said, ‘What do you think?’ And I said to myself, ‘My family was murdered. I am in the partisans. I’m alone. I won’t be living here anymore. The Nazis occupied my father’s house that he built himself.’ And I said to the partisan, ‘Burn it!”
photographs:
1. Burial of partisans in forests near Pinsk, 1944. Formal burials of partisans were rare. Faye took this photograph to show the first time her detachment’s casualties were buried in caskets…. “These are two Jews and two gentiles, all four buried in one grave together…. They fought together against the same enemy, so they are buried together.”
2. Shish Detachment Field Operating Table, forests around Pinsk, 1943
3. Partisans in the Forest, forest near Lenin, 1943
4. Faye with Old Friends, forest near Lenin, Winter, 1944 “These boys escaped the Nazi-occupied half of Poland and came to Lenin in 1939, when we first met…. I was happy to meet three Jewish boys together. In my brigade, I couldn’t even say I was Jewish…. So, when I saw boys I knew, I was very happy not to hide anything.”
5. Partisans standing in front of the ashes of the former Lazebnik family home, Lenin, Poland (now Belarus), mid 1943. The graves of German soldiers are in the foreground.
6. Faye practicing her aim, end of winter 1943, Pinsk. “This photo is really part of my history as a partisan. This is my ‘new’ automatic rifle…. I really had to practice how to shoot this one.”
7. Faye Schulman and Soviet partisans in the forest.
8. Faye Schulman and fellow armed partisans.
9. August 14, 1942 – The massacred Jewish community of Lenin, Poland. Including Faye’s parents and siblings.
10. Faye with her detachment. Forests near Lenin, Fall, 1942. Faye is lying down in the front row, second to last.
fearlessstateofmind backup 