Browse an alphabetical list of artifacts from the Holocaust and World War II. Each object tells a story about the history and demonstrates human experiences during the time period.
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This Olympic torch holder was used during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is engraved with the 1936 Olympics torch relay route from Olympia, Greece, to Berlin, Germany.
In 1963, the German Democratic Republic (DDR) issued this postage stamp to commemorate the Treblinka killing center. This was the first stamp of a series issued annually by the DDR under the name Mahn- und Gedensksatte (Remembrance and Memorial Center) in remembrance and commemoration.
Official identification tag (warrant badge) for the Criminal Police (Kriminalpolizei or Kripo), the detective police force of Nazi Germany. These badges were generally suspended from a chain and included the officer's identification number on the reverse.
Steven Fenves (born Fenyves) and his family lived in Subotica, Yugoslavia. His father, Lajos, managed a publishing house and his mother, Klári (Klara), was a graphic artist. In April 1941, Subotica fell under Hungarian occupation. Until May 1944, the Fenyveses lived in one corner of their apartment while Hungarian officers took over the rest of the family’s home. In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. In April, Lajos was deported to the Auschwitz camp in German-occupied Poland. Steven, his sister…
Abraham Lewent, who had been sent from the Warsaw ghetto to Majdanek and later transferred to several concentration camps in Germany, wore this jacket as part of the uniform issued to him upon his arrival in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.
Steven Fenves (born Fenyves) and his family lived in Subotica, Yugoslavia. His father, Lajos, managed a publishing house and his mother, Klári (Klara), was a graphic artist. In April 1941, Subotica fell under Hungarian occupation. Until May 1944, the Fenyveses lived in one corner of their apartment while Hungarian officers took over the rest of the family’s home. In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. In April, Lajos was deported to the Auschwitz camp in German-occupied Poland. Steven, his sister…
This paper tag identified bedding belonging to Alice (Lisl) Winternitz when she was deported from Prague, Czechoslovakia, to the Theresienstadt ghetto in June 1942.
Steven Fenves (born Fenyves) and his family lived in Subotica, Yugoslavia. His father, Lajos, managed a publishing house and his mother, Klári (Klara), was a graphic artist. In April 1941, Subotica fell under Hungarian occupation. Until May 1944, the Fenyveses lived in one corner of their apartment while Hungarian officers took over the rest of the family’s home. In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. In April, Lajos was deported to the Auschwitz camp in German-occupied Poland. Steven, his sister…
Eugenics poster entitled "The relationship between Jews and Freemasons." The text at the top reads: "World politics World revolution." The text at the bottom reads, "Freemasonry is an international organization beholden to Jewry with the political goal of establishing Jewish domination through world-wide revolution." The map, decorated with Masonic symbols (temple, square, and apron), shows where revolutions took place in Europe from the French Revolution in 1789 through the German Revolution in 1919. This…
Antisemitic children's book published in 1936 in Nuremberg, Germany. The title, in German, is translated as "You Can't Trust a Fox in the Heath and a Jew on his Oath: A Picture Book for Young and Old." The cover depicts a fox in the heath and a caricature of a Jew taking an oath.
Antisemitic propaganda flyer comparing Jews to diseases. It reads "Tuberculosis Syphilis Cancer are curable ... It is necessary to finish the biggest curse: The Jew!"
Identifying armband worn by Pao Chia member. In 1942 the Japanese in Shanghai established self-policing units, Pao Chia, composed of all men, foreigners and Chinese, aged 20 to 45. In the designated area, male refugees served several hours weekly in rotating shifts as guards for buildings and ghetto entrances where they examined passes. Despite the Japanese use of the Pao Chia to help police the ghetto, it was relatively easy to leave the "designated area," which was not walled in. Individuals who did so,…
Stanislava Roztropowicz kept a diary from 1943-1944. In it, she describes her family's decision to hide an abandoned Jewish girl, Sabina Heller (Kagan). Sabina Kagan was an infant when SS mobile killing squads began rounding up Jews in her Polish village of Radziwillow in 1942. Her parents persuaded a local policeman to hide the family. The policeman, however, soon asked the Kagans to leave but agreed to hide baby Sabina. Her parents were captured and killed. Sabina was concealed in a dark basement,…
This tan backpack was used by Ruth Berkowitz to carry her belongings as she fled from Warsaw via Lithuania and the Soviet Union to Japan. Most of her possessions were confiscated by both the Nazis and the Soviets during her journey. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
These tiny black, white, gold, and clear glass beads were used by Rachel “Chelly” de Groot from November 1942 to April 1944 and recovered by her brother Louis after the war. Chelly used the beads to make handicrafts. On November 16, 1942, Chelly, then 15, Louis, 13, and their parents Meijer and Sophia left Arnhem and went into hiding after the Dutch police warned them of a raid. Meijer and Sophia hid in Amsterdam while Chelly and Louis moved around to different locations. In summer or fall 1943,…
(Middle, left and bottom) In the drawing at the middle, left, Hungarian soldiers use an ax to cut up a dead horse in order to get meat to sustain themselves. The image at the bottom, titled "The Long Trip, February 1943," shows a Hungarian soldier walking along a road past a dead horse and an abandoned harrow that is half buried in the snow. [Photograph #58110]
(Top) A drawing dated October 1942 depicting the events of August 28 when Beifeld was wounded near the front lines. His caption reads: "I get wounded and manage to get away from the dangerous bend in the [Don] river]." (Bottom left) Skull of a Soviet soldier with the caption 'Keep Smiling.' (Bottom right) Map entitled 'Dangerous Curve' depicting the bend in the Don River where the Soviet army was threatening to break through. [Photograph # 58061]
(top) "Watercolor entitled 'Partisan hotel and public house', Krassnolipia, Ukraine, until July 31, 1942"; (middle) "Drawing entitled 'The interrogation of partisans captured by our unit'"; (bottom) "Watercolor entitled 'My lodgings in Krassnolipia'" [Photograph #58040]
(Bottom) A drawing illustrating the patriotism of the Hungarian Jewish Labor Serviceman. Despite the fact that the Jew is denied the right to wear a military uniform and bear arms, Erno Steiner picks up the abandoned machine gun of First Lieutenant Hevessy of the 4th Infantry Division and starts firing at Soviet troops to fend them off. [Photograph #58015]
(Top and bottom) The image at the top shows Hungarian soldiers abandoning their trenches on the front lines as a Soviet tank overruns the barbed wire fortification separating the two armies. The drawing at the bottom captioned "Alarm," shows Hungarian soldiers running back and forth sounding the alarm of the Soviet counteroffensive. The drawings are dated Jan 11 and 13, 1943. [Photograph #58103]
(Bottom) View of fortifications built at Kalimovka to defend the advancing troops of the 4th Infantry Division of the Hungarian 2nd Army. In the lower right corner of the drawing, men prepare the grave of Jewish Labor Serviceman Nandor Klein, the first fatality of the company. The Hungarian caption reads: The death of our first hero, Nandor Klein, his grave, June 5, 1942." Klein was killed by a stray Soviet bullet on his way back to base. [Photograph #58013]
(Top) A map dated August 1942 showing the area of the late summer skirmishes between Hungarian and Soviet forces. It also shows the crucial bend in the Don River near the town of Uryv, where the fateful Soviet breakthrough occurred in January 1943. (Bottom) "Fairy tale nights along the Don River, August 1942." [Photograph #58058]
A page of drawings illustrating the contribution of Jewish Labor Servicemen to the war effort. At the top: "The different platoons work hard at the battle front and in the no man's land [between the armies]. They actively participate in the fighting. They carry ammunition to the Hungarian soldiers." In the middle: "They defuse land mines. They bury the dead, including those that had been left unburied from the winter campaign. They carry soldiers wounded on the front lines to safety." At the bottom: "For…
(Middle) In a take-off of travel posters advertising peaceful vacation spots, Beifeld draws a picture of a Hungarian military tent pitched next to a tree on which a bird is cheerfully chirping. Next to the tent the artist writes "Peaceful Surroundings" but above, a Soviet bomber releases a bomb aimed at the tent. [Photograph #58022]
(Bottom) In a drawing dated April 18, 1942, Beifeld shows the school where the Hungarian Labor Service company 109/13 was quartered in Csobanka (Szentendre district), Hungary, before its departure for the Ukraine. A group of Hungarian soldiers [assigned to the labor service company] sits outside in the schoolyard. [Photograph #57947]
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