Holocaust-era Passover artifacts, images in new online Yad Vashem exhibit

Passover haggadah, matzah covers, and photos from Nazi occupied Europe of Jews fulfilling religious obligations of Passover holiday despite the intense hardship and difficulties.

By JEREMY SHARON
A Passover Haggadah Written in Hiding by Elimelekh Landau from Borislav (photo credit: PINCHAS LANDAU AND YARON LANDAU/YAD VASHEM)
A Passover Haggadah Written in Hiding by Elimelekh Landau from Borislav
(photo credit: PINCHAS LANDAU AND YARON LANDAU/YAD VASHEM)
A Passover haggadah produced from memory while in hiding from the Nazis, a matzah cover retrieved after the Holocaust, and an image of matzah baking in the Lodz ghetto.
These are just some of the many artifacts and photographs which have been put together by Yad Vashem for its new, online exhibition recalling the Passover holiday during the Holocaust era.
The exhibition, which is now online, illustrates the stories of Jews caught up in the horrors of the Nazi genocide and cataclysmic world war who, despite unimaginable difficulties, still sought to bake matzah, hold a Passover Seder, and fulfill the religious obligations of the festival.
One artifact highlighted in the exhibition is a Passover haggadah, the text recited at the Seder ceremony, written down from memory by a father and son in hiding in Poland. 
Prominent businessman Shmaryahu Landau and his wife Sarah, together with their children Elimelekh, Judah and Tamar lived in Borislav, eastern Poland before the Second World War broke out.
The Landau family lived through the Soviet occupation of their region, and survived Nazi oppression and roundups until February 1943, when Shmaryahu and Sarah decided to take the family into hiding.
The family hid in the home of one Anna Kushiotko whose house, situated on the outskirts of the city, was surrounded by a high wall.
In one room with shuttered windows, the Landau family hid along with another woman for a year and a half, and frequently needed to hide in a dark, airless space under the floorboards without food or drink until danger passed.
During their period in hiding, the Landaus were able to suitable clean and prepare the oven of their hosts and bake matzahs in it for Passover.
Shmaryahu recited the text of the haggadah from memory to his son Elimelekh, who wrote it down and decorated the text forming the artefact now on display in the Yad Vashem Passover exhibition.
Among the many images displayed in the new Passover exhibition are striking photos of preparations for Passover in the Nazi ghettos during the Holocaust.
One image shows Jews baking matzahs in hiding in Lodz, Poland in 1943, another matzah baking in the Warsaw ghetto, as well as photos from Passover seders in the Warsaw ghetto and other locations in occupied Europe during the Holocaust.
Another artifact is a matzah cover made by the grandmother of a Holocaust survivor which was retrieved after the war.
Lea Holczer along with her sisters and mother were deported to Auschwitz during the Holocaust, where mother Berta and her younger sister Rozs were murdered, while her father, Rodolf, died earlier in Budapest.
Upon return to her home town of Kunzentmiklos in Hungary after the Holocaust, Lea discovered the matzah cover made by her grandmother Chana Reasz in 1905 and brought it to Israel in 1949 when she immigrated with her husband.


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