Irene Hass Shapiro collection

Document | Not Digitized | Accession Number: 1997.A.0179

Overview

Description: Contains the donor's recollections of the German invasion of Bialystok (Poland) in September, 1939, the Soviet occupation which occurred shortly thereafter, and the German return on June 27, 1941; the burning of the Jewish quarter; the mass executions of Jewish men; her transfer into the ghetto on August 1, 1941, along with 60,000 other Jews, where she stayed until the ghetto was liquidated in 1943; her transfer, with her mother, to Blizhyn (Poland); her transfer, again with her mother, to Auschwitz concentration camp in May 1944; her transfer to a munitions work camp at Lippstadt (Germany); and her mother's death from exhaustion and starvation in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Irene and her sister, who became a Christian ward of a Polish family, were the only family members who survived. Two black and white photographs and a fragment of a third black and white photograph of members of the Hass and Finkelstein families, as well as a captioned photocopy of each photograph, are included.

Conditions on Access: There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
Conditions on Use: The Museum is in the process of determining the possible use restrictions that may apply to material(s) in this collection.

Holder of Originals: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1997 by Irene Shapiro