CAMERA OBSCURA

DRAMATIS PERSONA

This unidentified young woman with an elaborate hairstyle is probably Annushka Varšavskienė. Small fortune Date unknown.

SNAPSHOTS

Break free from the studio. Portable and lightweight Annushka Varšavskienė is at the back on the right. The photograph was almost certainly taken at Annushka’s family villa/children’s sanatorium in Birštonas. Date unknown.

A BIT OF A CAD

Samuil Isakovitch in dapper clothes as always. The date on the reverse side of the photograph, which was taken in Gomel, is December 14, 1918, two days after Annushka’s 23rd birthday.

MASQUERADE

A group of unidentified children and teenagers wearing masquerade costumes at Annushka’s family villa/children’s sanatorium in Birštonas. The boy with his arm in a sling has some writing in Lithuanian on his t-shirt. The two legible words translate as ‘basketball’ and ‘luck’. c.July 24, 1938.

BELLA?

An unknown girl, possibly Bella Varšavskytė, poses for the camera, almost certainly at Annushka’s family villa/children’s sanatorium in Birštonas. If this is Bella, the date is about 1939. Research continues

FROM THE AIR

Annushka Varšavskienė’s first husband, Samuil Isakovitch, around the time that the couple’s daughter, Lubochka, was born. Samuil was probably still serving as a medical officer in the Russian Red Cross at the time. The photograph was taken in Saint Petersburg, which may well explain why he was so far from home. May 30, 1914. Vanishes from the collection

SECOND MARRIAGE

Germanophile

Leiba Varšavskis and Annushka Varšavskienė, posing in their finest clothes outside the exclusive Regentenbau concert venue in the German spa town of Bad Kissingen. The photograph almost certainly dates from September 1921, when the couple were living in Berlin during the period that Annushka was studying at a music academy in the city, and may even, and when they’re recorded as staying at the Hotel Löwinsky in Bad Kissingen on Friday September 2, 1921. At the time, the Hotel Löwinsky was run by Rosamunde Löwinsky (1861-1940), and her daughter, Else, of whom the latter was deported from Bad Kissingen on May 20, 1942, and who committed suicide in Theresienstadt in October of the same year. The incomplete writing on the bench that Leiba and Annushka are sitting on would have read Nur für Kurgäste, or Only for Spa Guests. On March 2, 1938, the signs on all public benches in Bad Kissingen were changed to Nur für Juden, or Not for Jews. The Nur für Kurgäste benches returned at the end of the Second World War, and were eventually scrapped during the 1950s, when the Regentenbau and the park in which it’s located were opened to members of the general public.

MUSIC LINKS

LAST SEEN

Annushka Varšavskienė is at the back in the middle. Frida Varšavskytė (with the hanging pompom) is immediately in front of her. Bella Varšavskytė is at front right. The photograph was taken in about 1936, almost certainly at Annushka’s family villa/children’s sanatorium in Birštonas.

ANNUSHKA?

Unidentified girl. Her facial features are very similar to Annushka’s, and this might possibly be her when she was a child.

THE TIMBER MERCHANT

Possibly taken at Leiba Varšavskis’ sawmill in Kazlų Rūda. Leiba is on the right. Date unknown.

BELLA?

Quite possibly Bella Varšavskytė, in which case the date is about 1929.

LAST VISITED

Bella Varšavskytė and her uncle, Leo Roskes/Roskies, pose for an informal photograph at Masha and Leo Roskes’ home in Cernăuți, which at the time was part of Romania, and that today is the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. The photograph was taken in about 1938, two years or so before Leo, Masha and their two children escaped Europe and started a new life in Canada. Masha and Leo Roskes were the parents of the renowned Jewish scholars, Ruth Wisse and David G. Roskies. The family changed their name from Roskes to Roskies in Canada for reasons that remain unclear.

STYLISH

A young and stylish Annushka Varšavskienė poses for a photograph in an unknown photography studio at an unknown date. Traditional Hebrew songs and Haskalah

KAZLŲ RŪDA

Annushka, the wife of the wealthy Leiba Varšavskis, the owner of a prosperous sawmill in Kazlų Rūda among other business interests, poses with Annushka and Leiba’s youngest daughter, Bella, and two unidentified workers in an informal portrait representing two different worlds that appear to be getting along just fine. The man on the left looks as if he’s wearing a chauffeur’s hat. The man wearing the boots is probably an employee at the sawmill. The photograph dates from about 1937.

PYJAMARAMA

Unidentified girl wearing pyjamas in the forest.

LEIBA

Leiba Varšavskis wearing a rather splendid hat and fur coat. The photograph is from a series of images in the Lost & Found collection that were taken on the same day. According to family legend, Leiba was responsible for bread distribution in Vilna during the German occupation of the city during the First World War. Vilna, c.March 27, 1917.

NYONYA

The Russian inscription on this extraordinary studio photograph that was sent to Annushka Varšavskienė by her brother Benjamin (Nyonya) Matz reads ‘Annushka! On the threshold of your new life I send you a portrait. A symbol of brotherly love and a new life. And to your chosen life friend, I say: Comrade, your happiness is great, so let it be eternal’. Judging from the date, the ‘chosen life friend’ in question must have been Leiba Varšavskis. The date (February 8, 1919) also implies that Nyonya, who died from the so-called Spanish flu, must have been a victim of the virus’ third wave, that lasted from January 1919 until June 2019.

DOWN BY THE SEA

An informal group portrait of Annushka Varšavskienė (in the striped bathing costume) and others sitting on the beach at the popular Lithuanian seaside resort of Palanga. Frida and Bella Varšavskytė are possibly sitting to Annushka’s left. The other photograph in the Lost & Found collection that was taken in Palanga is dated 1932. If this is from the same trip/holiday, then Frida would have been nine and Bella would have been four. The man on the right bears a resemblance to Leiba Varšavskis, and might be his brother, whose existence is known about but whose identity and fate remain a mystery.

RUTH

Masha Roskes/Roskies’ eldest daughter, Ruth, ice-skating with an unknown man in Cernăuți before the war. Ruth (today known as Ruth Wisse) was born on May 13, 1936, and their family left Europe in October 1940, meaning that the photograph was taken during one of the last two winters of the 1930s.

FROM THE AIR

A fun studio photograph of Annushka and Leiba that was taken at the Modern studio in Kaunas in about 1920. The woman on the left is unknown.

A THEATRICAL FAMILY

Bella Varšavskytė being theatrical, almost certainly at Annushka’s family villa/children’s sanatorium in Birštonas in 1937. HERMAN IRENA

THE PAPER BRIGADE

The main street in Wilno (as it was known during most of the interwar period), ul. Mickiewicza, that today is called Gedimino Prospektas (Gediminas Avenue). The four people in the photograph are unknown, although the couple on the right closely resemble Annushka’s brother, Grisha Matz, and his wife, Nadia. The other couple might be Nadia’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Vinisky. Ongoing research has uncovered the fact that Nadia Matz, who was imprisoned in the Vilna Ghetto and who was almost certainly murdered at Majdanek in 1943, was a member of the Paper Brigade. Grisha Matz was killed during the first days of the German occupation.

A FAMILY ALBUM

Unknown woman. Possibly one of Annushka Varšavskienė’s sisters. The location is almost certainly Vilna, c.May 25, 1913.

A ROLL IN THE HAY

The date on this photograph of Annushka Varšavskienė’s future first husband Samuil Isakovitch lying in the hay is December 12, 1910, Annushka’s 15th birthday.

MASHA

Annushka Varšavskienė’s favourite sister, Masha Roskes/Roskies, in Zurich, aged about 30, in 1937. Masha, who emigrated to Canada in 1940, was the only known member of Annushka’s large family to have survived the Holocaust.

FRIDA & BELLA

A rare photograph from about 1936 in which Bella Varšavskytė (right) isn’t smiling.

DRAMATIS PERSONA

A beautifully lit portrait of a young Annushka Varšavskienė wearing a rose on her blouse. Date unknown.

A FAMILY ALBUM

Sala Matz (left), the daughter of Annushka Varšavskienė’s sister, Mina, poses with what’s probably her cousin Lubochka Isakovitch, Annushka Varšavskienė’s daughter from her first marriage to Samuil Isakovitch. The photograph was almost certainly taken in Vilna/Vilnius in about 1919.

SNAPSHOTS 

Annushka Varšavskienė (left), Frida Varšavskytė (seated centre) and two unidentified people pose for an informal photograph on the terrace at Annushka’s family villa/children’s sanatorium in Birštonas.

CRACKING THE CODE

An unidentified girl standing on what appears to be the upstairs balcony at Annushka’s family villa/children’s sanatorium in Birštonas.