In this exhibition, you hopefully will have the opportunity to form some sort of imagery and an understanding of what life might have been like for the citizens of Łapy, Poland, for Jew and non-Jew alike, both before the Second World War and also during the German Occupation.

You will read below the story about the experience of several Jewish families who once lived in Łapy. You will also see several dozen photos of Łapy and its people, both during the interwar period and during World War II itself.

You can find this online Museum of Family History exhibition at https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/lapy/main.htm. 

Steven Lasky

Has it occured to many of us modern people, with our big houses, washers & dryers, 3 new cars per family, that what differentiates us from the ancestors we revere is that they didn't have all these material possessions and conveniences.  That lack made their families and communities closer.  They had to help each other.  They depended on each other for companionship and intertainment, since they had no TV or internet.  As pedestrians without cars, they met each other often in the streets, and so knew each other well.

Times were tough then.  But when you talk to a US person in our times, the thing they talk about is WW II.  It's the hardships of his life that define him.  To live the life of an American consumer is a much duller existence than our ancestors had.  I look at photos of my family from 100 or 150 years ago and I wish that the world had not changed, and that I could live lives like theirs.  I would trade my car and I-Phone for a blacksmith's anvil and a washboard, in a minute!
--  Josef Hannum