Tsvi C. Nussbaum

Jews being arrested in the Warsaw Ghetto. The little boy may be Tsvi Nussbaum. The SS soldier with the MP on the right is Josef Blösche.

Tsvi Chaim Nussbaum (October 31, 1935 – July 2, 2012) was a Holocaust survivor, known as possibly being the boy in a famous photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Early life

Nussbaum's parents immigrated to The British Mandate of Palestine in 1935. However, they found life too difficult there, and so returned in 1939 to Sandomierz in Poland. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 Nussbaum's mother and father were murdered before the Jews of the region were sent to various German Nazi concentration camps. Tsvi's brother disappeared, never to be seen again. Shortly thereafter Tsvi, his aunt and uncle along with his first cousins' Aaron and Mark Nussbaum and their mother Regina moved to Warsaw and, posing as gentiles, lived there for over a year. When caught, they were deported to the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.

Survival

After 1945, Tsvi moved to The British Mandate of Palestine. After living in Israel for eight years, he moved to the United States. Initially, he did not speak English; but having a talent for science, he later studied medicine and became an otolaryngologist in New York City.

Identity dispute

There are several considerations that count against Nussbaum being the boy in the photograph. Nussbaum's family was arrested at the Hotel Polski which is not in the Warsaw ghetto where all of the photos from the Stroop Report are generally thought to have been taken. Further, the incident he claims was in July 13, 1943. This was nearly two months after the Stroop report was completed, and sent to Himmler and Kruger. The German soldiers would not have needed combat uniforms at the hotel. The heavy clothing worn by most of the Jews suggests that the photograph was taken in May.

See also

• Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Further reading

• Richard Raskin. A Child at Gunpoint. A Case Study in the Life of a Photo. Aarhus University Press, 2004. ISBN 87-7934-099-7
• Frédéric Rousseau. L'Enfant juif de Varsovie. Histoire d'une photographie Le Seuil, 2009
• Dan Porat. The Boy. A Holocaust Story. Hill and Wang, 2010. ISBN 0-8090-3071-3

External links

• Yahoo! Movies
• Auschwitz.dk on Nußbaum
• Auschwitz.dk
• Auschwitz.dk on the Holocaust
• The Stroop Report on Wikimedia Commons
• http://www.auschwitz.dk/Star/Nussbaum.htm
• The Boy in the Photo? - The Warsaw Ghetto & The Stroop Report on H.E.A.R.T.
• In Memory of Dr. Tsvi Chaim Nussbaum