Faye Schulman

Faye Schulman

Photographed by Moishe Lazebnik, 1999 - Toronto Canada. JPEF / Faye Schulman, A Partisan’s Memoir, Second Story Press.




Approximate area of partisan activity for Faye Schulman



During a raid on Lenin, 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. On missions Faye buried the camera and tripod to keep it safe. Her photos show a rare side of partisan activity -- one is a funeral scene where two Jewish partisans are being buried alongside Russian partisans, despite the intense antisemitism in the group. In another image, Schulman and three young Jewish men smile joyously after an unexpected reunion in the forest -- each believing that the other had been killed.

"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." She is one of the only known Jewish partisan photographers.

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 Camps in Germany for the next three years and immigrated to Canada in 1948.
