Past Exhibitions

“I was a photographer. I have pictures. I have proof.” Faye Schulman was a Jewish photographer and partisan during World War II. Born in 1919 to Rayzel Migdalovich and Yakov Lazebnik in Lenin, Eastern Poland (now part of Belarus), Faye was one of seven children. At the age of 10, Faye began assisting her older brother in his photography studio in Lenin. Neither of them knew that her skills as a photographer would later save her life. By 1941, the Nazi party occupied eastern Poland, and Faye was forced to work for them as an ID photographer and film developer.  

On August 14, 1942, Faye lost the majority of her family to a ‘liquidation’ of the Lenin ghetto. Her skills as a photographer saved her life as only six ‘helpful’ Jewish people – a tailor, shoemaker, carpenter, blacksmith, printer, and a photographer – and their families (a total of 27 people) were spared. Shortly afterwards, Faye and the other remaining Jewish people fled Lenin after being informed by a Jewish partisan (resistance fighter) that they were to be executed. They fled to the nearby forests, and Faye joined the Molotava Brigade, where she worked as a partisan, photographer, and nurse until the summer of 1944. 

This exhibition contains 29 photographs and informative panels detailing Faye Schulman’s life during the war as a partisan photographer. 

Please note that these photographs and panels contain sensitive topics such as wartime violence, death, and weaponry. This exhibition is not recommended for children under the age of 16.