L'Enfant Jesus Miraculeux de Prague [Miraculous Infant Jesus of Prague] medallion given to an young Austrian Jewish woman
- Date
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received:
1946
- Geography
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received:
Prague (Czech Republic)
- Language
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French
- Classification
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Christian Art and Symbolism
- Category
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Medals
- Object Type
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Devotional medals (lcsh)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Nina Kaleska
Religious medallion that was a parting gift to 17 year old Nina Kaleska when she left Prague for London in 1946. It was given to her by Vaclav Ruziczka, whom she met on a park bench soon after she arrived in the city where she had no contacts. He helped her find a place to live and to work. Nina had decided to go to Prague in June 1945, following her May 1945 liberation during the Retzow death march by the Russian Army. She had no surviving relatives in Europe and went to Prague to try to find a friend that she had made in the concentration camps. In 1941, when she was 12, Nina was forced into the Jewish ghetto in Grodno, Poland, with her parents and older sister, Sala, who was 17. The girls evaded several evacuation transports from the ghetto, but on January 20, 1943, Nina and Sala were deported to Auschwitz. Her sister fell ill and died within a few months. Nina was in the camp for 2 years. Some time in 1944, she was moved to Ravensbrück and then to Retzow-am-Rechlin. The camp was evacuated in May 1945 with a death march as Russian forces approached. Nina stayed in Prague for about a year, then left for London in 1946. She joined her only known relative, an aunt, in the United States in 1950.
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Record last modified: 2022-05-31 16:12:16
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn39863
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Handmade pin embroidered with her prisoner number made for a concentration camp inmate on her 16th birthday
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Medallion with Moses and the S'hma prayer found by a young Jewish woman on a camp transport
Object
Religious medallion with an image of Moses with the Ten Commandments found by Nina Kaleska on a concentration camp transport around 1944. It also has the beginning lines in Hebrew of the S’hma prayer, a foundational prayer of Judaism, recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4. In 1941, when she was 12, Nina was forced into the Jewish ghetto in Grodno, Poland, with her parents and older sister, Sala, who was 17. The girls evaded several evacuation transports from the ghetto, but on January 20, 1943, Nina and Sala were deported to Auschwitz. Her sister fell ill and died within a few months. Nina was in the camp for 2 years. Some time in 1944, she was moved to Ravensbrück and then to Retzow-am-Rechlin. Nina was liberated by the Russian Army on May 5, 1945, during a death march from Retzow. She settled in Prague for about a year until she immigrated to London in 1946. She joined her only known relative, an aunt, in the United States in 1950.