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Nagasaki, Japan
Three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, on August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, pushing Japan to surrender on August 15, 1945 and ending the war in the Pacific. Both cities were devastated and the combined death toll in the immediate aftermath of the blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki exceeded 100,000, with many more deaths recorded in subsequent months.
Ellis Island, NY
Between 1892 and 1954, some 12 million immigrants to the United States passed through the immigration inspection station at Ellis Island in New York Harbor. Barbara Bandler and her family stop here in July 1941 on their voyage from Lisbon to the Dominican Republic. They spend several weeks in the facility’s barracks while they undergo heath screenings and await clearance to continue their journey to Dominican Republic.
Budapest, Hungary
The Hungarian capitol of Budapest was home to c. 200,000 Jews before the outbreak of World War II. Despite Hungary’s alliance with Nazi Germany, the Jewish community in Budapest was relatively safe until the country was occupied by the Nazis in March 1944. Between March - July 1944, provincial Hungarian Jews were forced into ghettos and deported to concentration camps. The Jews of Budapest were concentrated into designated buildings throughout the city. In late 1944, some 70,000 were forced on a death march to labor camps in Austria and Germany. Those Jews remaining in Budapest were moved to a ghetto. Just weeks before the city’s liberation by Soviet troops in February 1945, members of the Hungarian fascist party, the Arrow Cross shot and killed some 20,000 Jews on the banks of the Danube. Barbara Bandler Steinmetz’ father, Alexander Bandler, was from Budapest. Her parents met and married there in 1928, before moving to Italy, where Alexander owned and operated a hotel in Lussinpiccolo. The family returned to Budapest for a short time after their expulsion from Italy in 1939, before leaving for France with the intention of leaving Europe. They warned their relatives in Hungary of the impending danger, but were not able to convince them of the need to flee. Many of them did not survive the war.
Trieste, Italy
After leaving their hotel and home in Lussinpiccolo, the Bandlers traveled to Budapest via the Italian city of Trieste. Here, Alexander Bandler deposited some of their luggage in a storage locker with the intention of retrieving it after visiting family in Hungary. The Bandlers were never able to return to Trieste for their belongings.
This map features a selection of locations that figure in the history of the Holocaust. This is not a comprehensive map. The featured locations were selected based on their relevance to the Survival & Witness project. Many sites have been omitted due to the limited scope of this project; new locations will be added as the project is expanded.