Jewish refugees passing through Rowne Poland

This photograph depicts a group of Jewish refugees in horse-drawn carts traveling through the town of Rowne (now Rivne, Ukraine) as they return home. World War I had created a massive population of displaced persons that was then exacerbated by the Russian Revolution and the resulting civil war and Russo-Polish war. Jews faced the additional peril of pogroms. Rowne, a commercial hub with a large Jewish population, had experienced a series of pogroms in 1919, while the town was still part of Ukraine; by 1920 it belonged to Poland.


presentation Section: Previous Generations
Source: JDC