Chess and the Holocaust

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Some chess pieces and boards feature in a 'Children in the Holocaust' exhibition:

https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... ames-books

Summary page here for those and other chess artefacts:

https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... /chess.asp

Preserved in the Artifacts Collection of Yad Vashem's Museum are approximately twenty chess sets that were used by Jews during the Holocaust. Some were crafted during the war, others were made before the war and taken with Jews who were deported from their homes. Playing chess helped to alleviate the suffering of Jews and allowed them a few brief moments of relief from the hunger, the cold and the fear, temporarily easing their loneliness and sense of isolation.

Here are more specific links:

https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... olchic.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... /stern.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/artifacts/fea ... -loeb.html
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... uckman.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... nciosu.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... buszyc.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... eiburg.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... /furst.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... lieger.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... /jaget.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... arkiet.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... enberg.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... ennert.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibit ... -klein.asp

[Kevin Thurlow]

Thanks Chris. After I played in Krakow a few years ago, I visited Auschwitz, which was very moving and depressing. Chess pieces featured in the exhibits there also.