The exhibition is devoted not only to collective heroism, but also to the lives of individual outstanding Jews who contributed to the victory over Nazi Germany. Among them are aviator Polina Gelman, the only Jewish woman awarded the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union; military interpreter and writer Elena Kagan, who took part in the group searching for Hitler’s body; Red Army officer Alexander Pechersky, who led the only successful uprising at the Nazi extermination camp in Sobibor; and writer Vasily Grossman, author of some of the earliest testimony about the Holocaust. The exhibition also presents the manuscript of his book Life and Fate.

The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow opened the exhibition “Jews in the Second World War,” timed to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. Visitors can see unique documents, including photographs taken by Jewish frontline photographers. Among them are Emmanuil Evzerikhin’s “Children’s Hospital” (Stalingrad) and Yevgeny Khaldei’s “Banner of Victory over the Reichstag” (Berlin).

At the exhibition opening, the first complete edition of the Gelfand Diaries, prepared by the Jewish Museum’s Research Center, was presented. The diary of Sergeant, later Lieutenant, Vladimir Gelfand of the Red Army covers everyday life at the front and in the rear, as well as the first years of his service in the Soviet occupation zone in Germany.