- Brief Narrative
- White upright storage cabinet used to store goods at Dzierzazna prison camp for Polish children in a district of Łódź, (Litzmannstadt), Poland, circa March 1943 - July 1944. The prefabricated wardrobe was manufactured in Germany and put together using assembly instructions. Dzierzazna opened on January 12, 1943, as a subcamp of the Polish Juveniles Camp of the Security Police. The SS had a Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) program that urged SS and Wehrmacht soldiers to have at least four children, in or out of wedlock, to grow an elite Nazi Aryan population. By 1939, non-Aryan mothers were acceptable. In eastern occupied countries, children who appeared to meet Nazi racial criteria, such as blond hair and blue eyes, were taken, often forcibly, from their families. After another selection, some were sent to Germany to be indoctrinated; others were sent to camps such as Dzierzazna. Łódź Ghetto was liquidated in summer 1944. The camp closed July 31, its inmates sent to extermination or concentration camps.
- Date
-
use:
1943 March-1944 July 31
manufacture:
approximately 1943 March
- Geography
-
use:
Dzierzazna (Concentration camp);
Dzierzazna (Zgierz, Łódź, Poland)
manufacture:
Bielitz (Germany) historic;
Biesko-Biala (Poland)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
- Markings
- interior, lower edge of left door, stamped, black ink : KL(?)CH / Bielitz O/S [Bielitz Oberschlesien]
interior, left compartment, back right, stamped, black ink : Vorn / 6 [Front]
interior, left compartment, back right, stamped, black ink : BECK / Bielitz O/S / März-1943 [Bielitz Oberschlesien / March-1943]
interior, lower edge of right door, top center of left compartment shelf, and lower back of left compartment, stamped, black ink : Ladenbau-König / Bielitz O/S / März-1943 [Shopfitting-King / Bielitz Oberschlesien / March-1943]
interior, front of right compartment and back of left comp., stamped, black ink : KLISCH
interior, upper back left of left comp. and upper back right of right comp., stamped, black ink : 2
interior, right comp., bottom back corner, stamped, black ink : 4
interior, right comp., top upper left corner, stamped, black ink : 5
interior, left comp., back left corner of shelf, stamped, black ink : 7
interior, left comp., top upper right corner, stamped, black ink : Vorn [front]