Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Sven Sonnenberg was forced to wear this armband in the ghetto in Drzewica, Poland. Sven Sonnenberg was born in Grudziadz, Poland, on 17 Oct. 1931 to a Jewish father, Martin Sonnenberg, and a non-Jewish, German mother, Louise Theophil. In Nov. 1939, Sven, his parents, and his younger sister, Sylvia, were deported from Jablonowo, Poland, to the Płock ghetto. When the Płock ghetto was liquidated in 1941, the family was transferred to the Drzewica ghetto. During the liquidation of the Drzewica ghetto in 1942, Louise, Sven, and Sylvia escaped to a nearby forest where Martin was supposed to join them, but he never came. Louise found jobs as a cook first in a Polish conscript camp and then at the Helenówek orphanage. She died in 1949 of tuberculosis, and Sven and his sister were raised at the orphanage. Sven emigrated to the United States in 1968.
- Date
-
1941-1942
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Sven Sonnenberg
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Identifying Artifacts
- Category
-
Armbands
- Object Type
-
Armbands (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Armband made from white fabric with light blue embroidered edges and a Star of David in the center
- Materials
- overall : cloth
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The armband was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002 by Sven Sonnenberg.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-09-15 10:19:58
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn510337
Also in Sven Sonnenberg collection
The collection consists of one armband with a blue Star of David worn in the Drzewica ghetto, one yellow badge worn in the Płock ghetto, one coin from the Łódź ghetto, and two photographs.
Badge
Object
Sven Sonnenberg donor wore the badge on his outer clothing, front and back, in the ghetto in Płock, Poland
Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 10 mark coin
Object
10 mark coin issued in the Łódź ghetto in Poland in 1943. Nazi Germany occupied Poland on September 1, 1940; Łódź was renamed Litzmannstadt and annexed to the German Reich. In February, the Germans forcibly relocated the large Jewish population into a sealed ghetto. All currency was confiscated in exchange for Quittungen [receipts] that could be exchanged only in the ghetto. The scrip and tokens were designed by the Judenrat [Jewish Council] and includes traditional Jewish symbols. The Germans closed the ghetto in the summer of 1944 by deporting the residents to concentration camps or killing centers.
Sven Sonnenberg papers
Document
One photograph of Elisabeth Sonnenberg donor's wife dated October 8, 1964, in Warsaw, Poland, and one photograph of Sven and Sylvia Sonnenberg at an orphanage in Helenówek, Poland, circa 1948.
Sven Sonnenberg collection
Document
Consists of fourteen vintage photographs of the donor and his family before the war in Jablonowo, Poland; after the war in Otwock, Poland and in the Helenowek, Poland, orphanage; and a photographic portrait, circa 1964, of Elisabeth Sonnenberg, the donor's wife.
