Faye Schulman, born on this day in 1919, was a Jewish partisan and photographer who took up arms against the Nazis who were responsible for killing her family.

On August 14th, 1942, the Germans killed 1,850 Jews from the "Lenin" ghetto (named after Lenin, Poland, where Faye was from), including her parents, sisters, and younger brother. Faye was spared for her ability to develop photographs, and the Nazis ordered Faye to develop their photographs of the massacre. Later, she cited taking a photo of her dead family in a mass grave as the impetus to take up arms.

During a partisan raid on the camp, Faye fled to the forests and joined the Molotava Brigade, a partisan group mostly comprised of escaped Soviet Red Army POWs. She was accepted because her brother-in-law had been a doctor and they were desperate for anyone who knew anything about medicine. Faye served the group as a nurse from September 1942 to July 1944, even though she had no previous medical experience.

During another raid on the Lenin ghetto, Faye succeeded in recovering her old photographic equipment. During the next two years, she took over a hundred photographs, developing the medium format negatives under blankets and making "sun prints" during the day. While on missions, Faye buried the camera and tripod to keep it safe. Schulman is the only known Jewish partisan photographer from this era.

"I want people to know that there was resistance. Jews did not go like sheep to the slaughter. I was a photographer. I have pictures. I have proof."

  • Faye Schulman

After liberation, Faye married Morris Schulman, also a Jewish partisan. Faye and Morris enjoyed a prosperous life as decorated Soviet partisans, but wanted to leave Pinsk, Poland, which reminded them of "a graveyard." Morris and Faye lived in the Landsberg displaced persons camp in Germany for the next three years and immigrated to Canada in 1948.

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  • ashinadash [she/her]
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Is nostalgia a neurotypical thing?

    No, duh, that'd be fuckin stupid. What I mean is that I am watching zoomers of my generation make videoslop about being nostalgic for whatever was popular or considered good in like 1997, that they engaged with as kids, and I'm just not gettin it.

    I know videogames are cringe but it's a prime example: sloptube channel A Fish's Paradise just dropped an hourlong monster video about "N64 nostalgia" broadly, and it confuses me greatly. As a kid I had a hand-me-down Super Nintendo, and then an N64, and then an Xbox. I had N64 stuff like Mario Kart 64, Ocarina of Time, Banjo Kazooie, Smash Bros, and a couple of other ones, (War Gods lol) but I barely have a fondness for any of them. In fact collectathon platformers are a scourge =)

    Am I supposed to have fondness for media things I grew up with as a kid? Sincerely. The music of the 2000s was atrocious as well, for example, like it's weird watching people pine for the glory days of Hoobastank or Green Day or whatever. I actually don't get it, and I feel weird.

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      1 hour ago

      I think NT and ND people experience nostalgia at similar rates. When nostalgia and special interests overlap autistic people can get really obsessed.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      ·
      3 hours ago

      Yo I watched that and based on how much he talked up how hyped he was for the n64 at age 10 I thought we were the same age, he later says he's 20. So in this case he just liked retro games as a kid.

      • ashinadash [she/her]
        ·
        3 hours ago

        The fact that Fish is a literal ipad child born in like 2004 is harrowing, ngl. I guess maybe it's growing up in the glow of early 2010s youtube idolising the fuck out of retro games that makes it easy to put on the rose-tints about old consoles.

        But by the same token, I watched the AVGN and shit in highschool, and I played Mario 3 and Castlevania and shit as a result, but I do not think of the NES or whatever the way Fish does the N64. Idk.

          • ashinadash [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 hours ago

            Castlevania is like one of the top 10 games ever, good choice!!! Not because of nostalgic afterglow though :)

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
      ·
      5 hours ago

      I’m pretty sure nostalgia for most media is just nostalgia for a time when you had free time to enjoy media tbh.

    • Rojo27 [he/him]
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Music I kinda get, but video games and other media? Nah. I've gone back and tried playing certain games from my youth and while I still like them for the memories I have of them, I just can't bring myself to completely immerse myself in them. Same with movies and TV. There might be a handful of movies that I'd want to willingly rewatch, but generally I just don't care enough. I honestly even have a hard time getting into most modern media.

      • ashinadash [she/her]
        ·
        5 hours ago

        Funny enough I have a better hit rate with newer stuff. Film is a fundamentally flawed format :^) but same, like I played a lotta games and watched a lotta movies as a kid, none of which I could choose based on my tastes, so none of it really lines up with me now lol

          • ashinadash [she/her]
            ·
            4 hours ago

            Call me when they start making movies about trans dykes kissing okay? We can talk about film as a format then catgirl-happy

              • ashinadash [she/her]
                ·
                4 hours ago

                love lies bleeding

                Wouldja look at that madeline-stare no fuckin way, huh...

                • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 hours ago
                  very minor spoiler

                  One of the characters kind of becomes increasingly deranged due to steroids and her vanity during the movie. In one of the scenes depicting this there is a tv in the background talking about the collapse of the Soviet Union and how capitalism and “individualism” has won out, I think there was a montage portraying consumerism as well. I’m kinda doing a “wow this movie I liked must be based” thing, but it definitely feels like intentional commentary. It’s probably less socialism v capitalism and more liberal anxiety about increasing influence of Joe Rogan on the culture, but I’m just gonna stick with my reading of it.