The 1942 "Race Study" of Jewish Families in the Tarnów Ghetto

Our May Virtual Lunch & Learn Program features Dr. Margit Berner. In spring 1942, two Viennese scholars photographed and examined 106 Jewish families in the German-occupied Polish city of Tarnów. Their "research" addressed “typical characteristics of eastern European Jews” and they worked quickly, aware that their subjects, including 565 men, women, and children, would soon be deported to concentration camps. Examining scattered records and conducting extensive archival research, Dr. Berner identified some of the people featured in the “study” and make contact with their families, including the family of Victor Dorman, father of Chhange’s Board President, Howard. Their recollections, together with the images and biographic data, allow us to reconstruct the lives, persecution, and destruction of the 25,000 Jews of Tarnów.