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]
Watercolor depicting Hungarian soldiers from a medical unit moving into a Russian village and setting up operations, April 10, 1943. [Photograph #58122]
View of the countryside in Csobanka, Hungary, as the Hungarian Labor Service company 109/13 departs on the morning of April 20, 1942. [Photograph #57952]
In a drawing dated April 14, 1942, Beifeld shows houses in Csobanka (Szentendre district), Hungary, where the Hungarian military officers assigned to the labor service company were quartered before their departure for the Ukraine. [Photograph #57949]
(Top) A map showing the progress of the advance of the Hungarian 2nd Army toward the Don River as of July 1942. [Photograph #58034]
Drawing entitled 'Christmas Apotheosis! Don't let them do it' in which a member of a Hungarian medical unit stands behind a wounded Hungarian soldier as Russian tanks are destroying a Christmas tree. [Photograph #58087]
Collage entitled: "Mementos from the Russian campaign," which includes a watercolor of Stalin with the caption: 'Russia a meeting place for foreigners 1942-43' (top); a commuter train ticket issued to military personnel who carried the special SAS [Hurry, Immediate, Urgent] draft notice (middle, right); a pseudo travel brochure cover entitled 'Spend your summer vacation in merry Russia' (bottom, left); and the original design for the cover of the labor company's journal entitled 'Hungarian Royal 109/13…
(top) "Watercolor entitled 'Sports weeks in Uryv, September 1942' in which a Russian tank attacks a Hungarian unit in Uryv."; (bottom) "Watercolor entitled 'Quiet Don: a detailed map of the Don River area' featuring images of dead soldiers, horses and spilled blood on a map of the Don River." [Photograph #58060]
Pass issued to Benjamin Ferencz, war crimes investigator and later chief prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial. This pass granted the bearer free movement within the US-occupied zone of postwar Germany.
International Military Tribunal entry pass for Benjamin Ferencz, war crimes investigator and later chief prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial.
Soviet forces liberated the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in April 1945. In the camp, Soviet soldiers found this German edition of the Old and New Testaments on a dead prisoner, a Jehovah's Witness. The bible was sent to the prisoner's surviving family members.
The family bible shown here belonged to Andre Trocme and contains annotations he made in preparation for his sermons. Trocme was a Protestant pastor in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France. During the war, he and the town's residents helped shield Jews, especially Jewish children, and others from the Germans. The operation saved thousands of refugees, including about 5,000 Jews. His handwritten inscription in French reads, in part, "Happy are those hungry and thirsty of justice; for they will be satisfied."
These blacksmith's bellows were used by Romani (Gypsy) artisan Juri Cervenuak in Trebisov, Slovakia, in 1939. Many Roma traditionally worked as craftsmen and were blacksmiths, cobblers, tinsmiths, horse dealers, and toolmakers.
Second and third pages of a program booklet distributed during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Note the definitions of the conspiracy charge and crimes against peace, brought in the indictment.
Fourth and fifth pages of a program booklet distributed during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Page four defines the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The fifth page begins the list of IMT defendants. Handwritten notes in the margin record each defendant's sentence as it was read aloud in the courtroom.
First page of a program booklet distributed during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The dramatic text sets the scene in the courtroom.
Survivors of the camps lacked even basic possessions, such as footwear. The Red Cross issued these United States Army boots to Jacob Polak in June or July 1945 after his repatriation to the Netherlands.
A childsize violin that belonged to Boruch Golden (Gordon), who was killed along with his mother and brother at the Ponary killing site in September 1943. Boruch was born in 1930, and was one of four children. His parents, Moshe and Basia Golden (Gordon), raised their family in Swieciany (Svencionys), Lithuania. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the family was forced into the Swieciany ghetto. When that ghetto was later liquidated in 1943, the family was sent to the Vilna…
Boy Scout handmade badges worn by German-Jewish refugee boys. British expatriates had transplanted the Boy Scouts to Shanghai before the refugees' arrival. Unlike most of the Polish Jewish refugees, German and Austrian Jews usually went to Shanghai as families, and enrollment in schools and youth organizations in the International Settlement grew rapidly. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
This breakfast menu comes from the SS Exeter, an American ocean liner. The ship carried the Shadurs, a Jewish refugee family, to the United States in February-March 1941. The Shadurs were among the many Jewish refugees who journeyed on the SS Exeter from Lisbon, Portugal, to New York during World War II. Joseph Shadur was twelve years old at the time. He marveled at the ship’s bountiful meals, especially in light of the hunger his family had faced on their journey to the port of Lisbon. The course of…
Document from the Buchenwald trial stating that both the prosecution and the defense teams agree to waive their right to make closing statements. The document is signed by the US military prosecutors (including William Denson), the defense lawyers, and the defendants. Dachau, Germany, August 8, 1947.
A pair of candlesticks, bought in Poland and used every Friday evening during observance of the Jewish Sabbath. Polish Jewish refugees fleeing the German invasion of Poland in 1939 carried these candlesticks with them to Vilna.
This casting of a gas chamber door in the Majdanek camp, near Lublin, Poland, was commissioned by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Each gas chamber in Majdanek was fitted with an airtight metal door and was bolted shut before gas entered the chamber inside. SS guards could observe the killing process through peepholes in the upper center of the door.
A chart of prisoner markings used in German concentration camps. Dachau, Germany, ca. 1938–1942. Beginning in 1937–1938, the SS created a system of marking prisoners in concentration camps. Sewn onto uniforms, the color-coded badges identified the reason for an individual’s incarceration, with some variation among camps. The Nazis used this chart illustrating prisoner markings in the Dachau concentration camp.
Alice Goldberger (1897-1986) was born in Berlin, Germany. Trained as a youth-work instructor, she ran a shelter for disadvantaged children and their families. When Hitler came to power, Alice, who was Jewish, had to give up her post. She immigrated to England in 1939. When war broke out, Alice was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. While there, she organized a children's facility.Hearing of Alice's work in the camp, psychoanalyst Anna Freud (daughter of Sigmund Freud) intervened to secure her…
Alice Goldberger (1897-1986) was born in Berlin, Germany. Trained as a youth-work instructor, she ran a shelter for disadvantaged children and their families. When Hitler came to power, Alice, who was Jewish, had to give up her post. She immigrated to England in 1939. When war broke out, Alice was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. While there, she organized a children's facility. Hearing of Alice's work in the camp, psychoanalyst Anna Freud (daughter of Sigmund Freud) intervened to secure…
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