Yellow and green suitcase with key used by a German Jewish girl
- Date
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1949
(use)
- Geography
-
received :
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Language
-
English
- Classification
-
Containers
- Category
-
Luggage
- Object Type
-
Suitcases (aat)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Marion Cassirer
Yellow suitcase with green trim and a small key used by 12 year old Marion Kaufmann when she and her mother emigrated to the United States from Holland in February 1949. Marion's parents, Lina and Walter, owned an electrical repair shop in Berlin that was destroyed during Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. They worked in a Jewish daycare center until 1941, when the orphans were deported and the center closed. Walter made preparations for the family to escape, but was arrested in October 1942. Six year old Marion and her mother Lina fled to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, Dr. Max Knapp of the Dutch underground arranged separate hiding places for them. Marion was hidden with Boy and Mia Edgar in Amsterdam. She was arrested and sent to a transit camp for Jewish children in Amsterdam until rescued by the Edgars. They arranged for her to hide in various places near Arnhem: a convent in Malden, and the De Kleyn and then the Beelen homes in Overasselt. Marion was with the Beelen's from April 1943-September 1945, except for one month during the Allied Operation Market Garden in September 1944 when she was placed with a traveling group of Roma for safety. Lina was hidden in a home in Amsterdam that was raided. She then was moved to the Wesselius family farm in Oude Wetering. German soldiers were billeted nearby, and it was too dangerous to stay in the house, thus she was hidden in a haystack most of the time. The war ended in May 1945, and Lina found Marion at the Beelen farm in September. They eventually learned that Walter had died in Auschwitz in January 1943. Marion and Lina lived in Amsterdam until leaving for the US in 1949.
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Record last modified: 2018-01-31 13:16:40
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn49574
Also in Marion Kaufman Cassirer family collection
The collection consists of a suitcase and key, audio tapes, documents, and prayer book relating to the experiences of Marion Kaufmann and her mother Lina in the Netherlands and the United States after the Holocaust, during which they fled Germany and lived in hiding separately in the Netherlands.
Date: 1945-1973
Oral history interview with Lena Kaufman
Oral History
Lena Kaufman (formerly Lina Kaufmann) discusses experiences relating to the Holland Underground from 1942 - 1945.
Book of Psalms inscribed for a Jewish woman by the Dutch family who hid her during the war
Publication
Psalm book given to Lina Kaufmann with an inscription by the Wesselius family who provide a hiding place for her from September 1943-May 1945 in Holland. Marion's parents, Lina and Walter, owned an electrical repair shop in Berlin that was destroyed during Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. They worked in a Jewish daycare center until 1941, when the orphans were deported and the center closed. Walter made preparations for the family to escape, but was arrested in October 1942. Six year old Marion and her mother Lina fled to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, Dr. Max Knapp of the Dutch underground arranged separate hiding places for them. Marion was hidden with Boy and Mia Edgar in Amsterdam. She was arrested and sent to a transit camp for Jewish children in Amsterdam until rescued by the Edgars. They arranged for her to hide in various places near Arnhem: a convent in Malden, and the De Kleyn and then the Beelen homes in Overasselt. Marion was with the Beelen's from April 1943-September 1945, except for one month during the Allied Operation Market Garden in September 1944 when she was placed with a traveling group of Roma for safety. Lina was hidden in a home in Amsterdam that was raided. She then was moved to the Wesselius family farm in Oude Wetering. German soldiers were billeted nearby, and it was too dangerous to stay in the house, thus she was hidden in a haystack most of the time. The war ended in May 1945, and Lina found Marion at the Beelen farm in September. They eventually learned that Walter had died in Auschwitz in January 1943. Marion and Lina lived in Amsterdam until leaving for the US in 1949.