Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Identification tag stamped KLM / 85375 / P issued to Moses Majerczyk at Mauthausen concentration camp and worn in Melk and Ebensee concentration camps from August 1944 to May 1945. He was required to wear the tag around his wrist and it is taped to a wrist watch band. On September 1, 1939, Germany occupied Poland. In January 1942, Moses was taken to the Krakow ghetto. In September, he was one of the first prisoners transferred to Płaszów forced-labor camp to build the facilities. On August 8, 1944, he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was assigned prisoner number 85375. Later that month, he was sent to Melk forced-labor camp. In April 1945, Moses was transported to Ebensee concentration camp, where, on May 4-5, he was liberated by US troops. By January 25, 1946, Moses was at Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria. At the camp he met Ludwika Finder, a concentration camp survivor also from Poland, and, in May 1946, they married. In May 1949, they emigrated to the United States on the SS Marine Flasher.
- Date
-
use:
1944 August-1945 May
- Geography
-
issue:
Mauthausen (Concentration Camp);
Mauthausen (Austria)
use: Melk (Concentration camp); Melk (Austria)
use: Ebensee (Concentration camp); Ebensee (Austria)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ettie Shapiro
- Markings
- metal tag, front, embossed and engraved : KLM / 85375 / P [Konzentrations-Lager Mauthausen / 85375 / Political Prisoner-Polish]
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Moses Myers
- Biography
-
Mojzesz (Moses) Majerczyk (later Myers) was born on July 6, 1916, in Miechow, Poland, to Mendel and Rachla Ginsberg Majerczyk. Mojzesz had one younger sister. He was a textile worker and knitter. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. The German occupation authorities enacted policies aimed at persecuting and isolating Polish Jews. In March 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in the southern area of Krakow. In January 1942, Mojzesz was forced into the Krakow ghetto. In September 1942, he was among the first prisoners transported to Płaszów forced-labor camp, and was part of the labor crew that built those facilities. The Soviet Army was approaching Płaszów in the summer of 1944, and the SS that ran the camp deported prisoners to other camps. On August 8, 1944, Mojzesz was transported to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he received a prisoner identification number, 85375. Later that month, he was transferred to Melk forced-labor camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen. The Soviet Army advanced on the region in April 1945, and the SS at Melk transported prisoners to other Mauthausen subcamps. Mojzesz was transported to Ebensee concentration camp. On May 4 and 5, 1945, the US Army liberated the prisoners at Ebensee. Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. By January 25, 1946, Moses was at Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria. He met Ludwika (Luisa) Finder at the camp and they married on May 20, 1946.
Ludwika was born on April 20, 1918, in Krakow, Poland, to Haskel and Ettel Jetti Lustgarten Finder. She had an older sister, Helene, and a younger brother, Aleksander. In March 1941, Ludwika was forced from her family home and taken to the Krakow ghetto, which had just been established. In mid-March 1943, the SS was preparing to liquidate the ghetto, and Ludwika was transported to Płaszów. The Soviet Army was approaching Płaszów in the summer of 1944, and the SS deported the prisoners to other camps. Ludwika was among a group of one hundred Jewish Polish women selected for a labor detachment to the newly established Gundelsdorf labor camp, a subcamp of Flossenbürg. On August 6, 1944, the detachment arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where Ludwika and the other women were processed, then sent to Gundelsdorf in Germany, arriving on September 15, 1944. Ludwika’s detachment built the barracks at the camp and then sewed uniforms for the Wehrmacht. In February 1945, the group was split and Ludwika was sent on a forced march. In April 1945, her column of prisoners was liberated. She did not want to return to Krakow, and went to Salzburg displaced persons camp in Austria. Ludwika left in November 1945, and was at Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria, by January 25, 1946. She later learned that her brother Aleksander had survived.
On May 10, 1949, Moses and Ludwika (Lucy) left Linz and traveled to Bremerhaven, Germany. With the assistance of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they boarded the S.S. Marine Flasher on May 18, and sailed to the United States. The couple settled in Brooklyn, New York, and changed their last name to Myers. In approximately 1950, their daughter was born. Moses became a naturalized citizen in 1954, and Ludwika in 1955. Moses, age 85, died on February 28, 2002, in Hallandale Beach, Florida.
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Classification
-
Identifying Artifacts
- Category
-
Labels
- Object Type
-
Identification bracelets (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Rectangular, silver-colored metal tag embossed with the abbreviation KLM, the Arabic numerals 85375, and a red painted, inverted triangle with an uppercase letter P. Two thin tabs with circular holes extend from each side of the tag. The tag is taped to a dark brown leather watch band with clear adhesive tape. The band is tapered at the left end and has a silver-colored rectangular buckle and tang stitched into the right end. A light brown leather loop slides between the buckle and the tag. There are 5 small size adjustment holes and 5 slits cut into it. The band is worn and scratched and the left end is nearly detached.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 8.375 inches (21.273 cm) | Width: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm) | Depth: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm)
- Materials
- overall : leather, metal, paint, thread, adhesive tape
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Concentration camp inmates--Austria--Biography. Concentration camp inmates--Poland--Plaszow--Biography. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Krakow--Personal narratives, Jewish. Jewish refugees--Austria--Linz--Biography. Slave labor--Poland--Biography. World War, 1939-1945--Forced labor--Personal narratives.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The identification tag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Ettie Shapiro, the daughter of Ludwika and Moses Myers.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 18:34:22
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn50261
Also in Ludwika and Moses Myers collection
The collection consists of an identification tag, documents, and photographs relating to the experiences of Mojzesz Majerczyk (later Moses Myers) before and during the Holocaust in Krakow, Poland, and when he was imprisoned at Plaszow forced-labor camp and Mauthausen, Melk, and Ebensee concentration camps; and of both Mojzesz and Ludwika Finder after the war in the Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria, where they met and married. Some of these materials may be combined into a single collection in the future.
Date: 1916-1950
Mojzesz Majerczyk papers
Document
Photographs (12), and documents, primarily from post-war displaced persons camps in Austria, related to Moses Majerczyk and his wife, Ludwika (nee Finder) Majerczyk. Most of the photographs show the Majerczyks with friends and acquaintances in Bad Ischl and Linz, Austria, 1946-1949, with a few pre-war family photographs. Documents include a card identifying Moses as a former prisoner of Mauthausen/Ebensee (1945); a marriage certificate for Moses and Ludwika (1946); and two immigration cards issued by HIAS, showing that the Majerczyks left Bremen on the S.S. Marine Jumper, in May 1949.
Ettie Shapiro papers
Document
Contains one Ketubah, a marriage contract written between the donor's parents, Moshe, son of Menachem (Moses Majerczyk), and Ryfka, daughter of Yehezkel (Ludwika Finder), on 7 April 1946 (6 of Nissan 5706) in Linz, Austria.