This online exhibition on the Center for Jewish History website offers access to digitised home movies of American Jews who visited Poland in the 1930s:

"16 mm Postcards, on view at Yeshiva University Museum August 2010 – January 2011, brings to life the landscape and people in Poland through the amateur movies of immigrant American Jews who traveled “back home” to visit their families, friends, and former communities in the 1920s and 1930s.  Intended to be viewed by family and fellow landsmen (friends from the Old Country), these films offer a rare, intimate and—quite literally—moving picture of Jewish families, towns and society in pre-World War II Poland. This exhibition was developed in collaboration with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and in cooperation with the Center for Jewish History.

The films in this exhibition are part of a larger collection that resides in the archives of YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.  They are of mixed provenance, and many of these films arrived to the YIVO archives through multiple parties.  Still, others came with richer background information on the filmmakers as well as their provenance.  If you would like to donate a your or another family’s films, please contact the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Explore more about the context of these films in the Online Exhibition, view the original home movies and special online-only materials, and for teachers, prepare your classes to visit the exhibition with our curricular and teaching resources.

The films in this exhibition were digitized under a grant to the Center for Jewish History by the Righteous Persons Foundation. You can view the entire collection of films, as well as other digital materials in the Center for Jewish History’s Online Digital Collections."