Photo, Print, Drawing The American Public Bathhouse in Krakow, Poland. Bath house series, West Galicia: Amerykańska Łaźnia Ludowa
About this Item
Title
- The American Public Bathhouse in Krakow, Poland.
Other Title
- Bath house series, West Galicia: Amerykańska Łaźnia Ludowa
Summary
- This photograph depicts a mikvah (bathhouse) in Krakow, rebuilt in 1921-22. The old Jewish ritual bath building, facing Szeroka Broad Street, left in ruins by war, was utilized in the reconstruction. The sign in Polish reads: "American Public Bath House." World War I tore a calamitous path through the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, leaving in its wake widespread famine, disease, and economic hardship. In the immediate postwar years beleaguered Jewish communities faced continued challenges that threatened their existence. New socio-economic realities stripped European Jews of their former livelihoods, leaving them without the means to help themselves. Their communal infrastructure also lay in ruins. To address these conditions, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a humanitarian organization created at the start of World War I, helped the Polish Jewish community to rebuild communal institutions and to develop new health and welfare programs. This photograph is from the archives of the JDC, which contain documents, photographs, film, video, oral histories, and artifacts recording the work of the organization from World War I to the present.
Names
- Joint Distribution Committee of the American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers Associated Name.
Created / Published
- [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1921 to 1922]
Headings
- - Poland--Galicia--Krakow
- - 1921 to 1922
- - American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- - Bathhouses
- - Jews
- - Mikveh
- - Rituals
- - War damage
- - World War, 1914-1918
Notes
- - Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
- - Original resource extent: 1 photograph : black and white; 6.5 x 8.5 inches.
- - Original resource at: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- - Content in Polish.
- - Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.
Medium
- 1 online resource.
Source Collection
- World War I
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2021670926
Online Format
- compressed data
- image