Module 1 —
A Fragile Peace: The Interwar Years in Europe

Artefact: Postcard photograph of Moldava nad Bodvou Orthodox Synagogue.

Source: From the postcard collection of Dalibor Danko.

Location: Moldava nad Bodvou, Czechoslovakia.

Date: Date of image unknown. Between 1931-1938.

Physical Description: Paper, 9cm x 14cm.

Artefact Description: View of the synagogue from Vodná Street. The Orthodox synagogue, measuring 10 x 15 m, was built in 1931. It still stands on the site of the original synagogue from 1853, which was completely destroyed by fire on May 25, 1931. Men entered through the main entrance facing the side (left from the perspective of the image), while women passed through the back staircase covered with shingles to the gallery located one floor higher. Behind the temple flows the Bodva River, which was the source for the nearby mikvehs.

Max’s Memory: “My earliest memory is riding on the crossbar of my father’s bicycle as he took me to Hebrew school to introduce me to my teacher […] The school was located next to the synagogue in the centre of town, approximately one kilometer from our home.” (By Chance Alone, page 16)

Artefact: Photograph of tailoring workshop in Kosice.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #75456. Courtesy of Anna Osztreicher. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Location: Kosice, [Slovakia] Czechoslovakia.

Date: 1930.

Physical Description: Paper, Ink.

Artefact Description: Men and women work in a tailoring workshop in Kosice. Adolf Leibovics, the owner of the workshop, is seated second from the right. Businesses like this one would have surrounded Max on his trips to Kosice as a child, and were similar to the fur shop he later apprenticed at.

Max’s Memory: “The fur shop was quite large, with a storefront and a workshop behind it. There were ten or so workers engaged in different tasks […] The hardest job I had was to clean fur coats that were brought in for repairs.” (By Chance Alone, page 50-51)

Artefact: Photograph of shoe store in Kosice.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #16726. Courtesy of Eva Halmos Kuhn. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Location: Košice, [Slovakia] Czechoslovakia.

Date: Between 1920 and 1930.

Physical Description: Paper, Ink.

Artefact Description: View of the Kertesz shoe store in Košice, Slovakia, owned by the Jewish businessman, Samuel Kertesz. Samuel Kertesz perished in Auschwitz in 1944. Košice had a growing Jewish population in the 1920s, with Jewish businesses, synagogues, and community institutions contributing to the city’s cultural and economic landscape.

Max’s Memory: “[My mother] decided to take me by train to Kassa, where her cousins operated a small kosher restaurant. There were quite a few tradespeople who were steady customers at this restaurant. One man had a fur shop, and they asked him if he would take me on as an apprentice. My mother and I went to meet the owner, and I was hired.” (By Chance Alone, page 49)

Artefact: Census Photograph of Eisen Family.

Source: By Chance Alone, Max Eisen, HarperCollins Publishers LTD, 2016

Location: Moldava nad Bodvou, [Slovakia] Czechoslovakia.

Date: 1940.

Physical Description: Paper, Ink.

Artefact Description: Photograph of the Eisen family (left to right): Alfred (age 4), Edith (Max’s Mother), Max (age 11), Zoltan (Max’s Father), and Eugene (Age 6). Photographing Jewish families was a method of documenting and identifying Jews for later actions of labour, arrest and deportation. While this photo was the only photo that he had of his family (there is no photo with his baby sister who was born in 1942), it was also evidence of the methodology used by the Nazis to implement what would become known as the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”

Max’s Memory: “In 1940, the government posted more edicts in town specifically targeting the Jewish community […] Another oppressive edict decreed that all Jewish families be photographed by the police, and we were certain those photographs were then used as a surveillance tool.” (By Chance Alone, page 38)