Willy Cohn with his students and the school principal in the Johannes Gymnasium in Breslau, 1931.

Final exams were an important event in the life of a school. This photo of the 1931 graduating class of the public Johannes-Gymnasium, or St. John’s High School, at Paradiesstraße 3 (Stanisława Worcella Street) was probably taken on such an occasion. Visible in the background is Professor Willy Cohn, a history teacher at the school. A researcher specializing in the Middle Ages and the history of Jews in Breslau, Cohn himself graduated from the school and was employed there as of 1919. The Johannes-Gymnasium was considered an elite academic high school, and stood out for its religious tolerance; among the teachers and students alike were Catholics, Protestants and Jews.