Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Brown leather belt worn by Heinz Mayer, 13, when he was taken to safety in Swtizerland from France in 1943. The belt had belonged to his father Max who gave it to Heinz before Heinz left Camp de Gurs with a Jewiwh aid organization. Heinz' father and mother, Max and Mina, were later sent to Camp Noe and then deported to Auschwitz concentration camp and killed.
- Date
-
received:
1941
- Geography
-
received:
Gurs (Concentration camp);
Gurs (France)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Harry J. Mayer
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Harry J. Mayer
- Biography
-
Heinz (later Harry, 1930-2014) Jakob Joseph Mayer was born on January 2, 1930, in Neustadt, Germany, to Maximillian and Hermina (Mina) Mayer and had two siblings: Gusti (b. 1921) and Eric (b. 1924). In June 1937, at age 12, Eric was sent to the United States on a children's transport and was taken in by a family in Minneapolis. In January 1938, Gusti was able to immigrate to the United States where she met Julius Ackerman and they married in 1941. In 1940, Heinz and his parents were deported to Camp de Gurs in France. Several months later, Heinz and a few other children were taken to the village of Aspet, France, in the Pyrenees. In August 1943, an aid organization, possibly Oeuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE), helped the children reach Switzerland. After the war Heinz learned that his parents, Max and Mina, were sent to Camp de Noé in 1941 and later deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where they perished. In May 1946, Heinz immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Moinot Victory.
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Dress Accessories
- Category
-
Belts (Clothing)
- Object Type
-
Belts (Clothing) (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Brown leather belt with a metal buckle.
- Materials
- overall : leather, metal
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The belt was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002 by Harry J. Mayer, the son of Max Mayer.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 18:28:21
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn510345
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Also in Harry J. Mayer collection
The collection consists of a leather belt, booklets, documents, letters, photographs, and postcards relating to Heinz (Harry) J. Mayer and his family before the Holocaust in Germany, during the Holocaust when his parents, Max and Mina, were imprisoned in Camp de Gurs and Camp de Noé in France, and Heinz was taken to safety in Switzerland.
Date: 1930-1946
Harry J. Mayer papers
Document
The papers consist of booklets, documents, letters, photographs, and postcards relating to the Mayer family including correspondence sent from Camp de Gurs and Camp de Noé in France, images of the family from the pre-war period and from Camp de Gurs, and materials relating to Harry Mayer's membership in the Jewish scouts and his experiences in Switzerland.
