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White collar with blue polka dots carried by a Kindertransport refugee

Object | Accession Number: 2003.454.16

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    White collar with blue polka dots carried by a Kindertransport refugee
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    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Blue polka dot detachable collar made by her mother for 11 year old Lilli (Karoline) Schischa to take on the Kindertransport from Austria to Great Britain on July 13, 1939. In March 1938, Nazi Germany marched into Austria and made it part of the Third Reich. Jewish persecution. The clothing store owned by Lilli's parents, Wilhelm and Johanna, in Wiener Neustadt was seized. Lilli's brother, Edi, age 24, left for Palestine in October 1938. Her father was arrested during the Kristallnacht pogrom that November, but released after ten days. Her parents were able to get Lilli out of the country, but in February 1941, they were deported to the ghetto in Opole, Poland. They perished in the ghetto or in Sobibor death camp. Lilli returned to Vienna ca. 1947.
    Date
    emigration:  1939 July 13
    Geography
    received: Wiener Neustadt (Austria)
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lilli Schischa Tauber
    Contributor
    Subject: Lilly Schischa Tauber
    Biography
    Karoline (Lilli/Lilly) Schischa was born on March 13, 1927, to Wilhelm and Johanna Friedmann Schischa in Vienna, Austria. Wilhelm was born in Gloggnitz in lower Austria on October 11, 1883, the oldest son of Josef and Karoline Gerstl. He had three siblings, Paula, Helene, and Adolf. Josef, originally from Mattersdorf, was a master tailor and was very religious. Wilhelm’s mother died in 1894 and his father remarried Anna Guenser and had four children, Ludwig, Richard, Malwine (d. 1927), and Erna. Lilli’s mother Johanna was born in 1885 and had two sisters Berta Ohme and Fanny Bauer. Lilli was raised in Wiener Neustadt, along with her older brother, Eduard (Edi), who was born on October 5, 1914. Lilli’s family was very religious and followed Jewish traditions. The Schischas owned a menswear store in Wiener Neustadt which was seized after the Anschluss, the integration of Austria with Nazi Germany in March 1938. Edi emigrated to Palestine that October. During the Kristallnacht pogrom that November 9-10, Wilhelm was arrested and detained in prison for ten days. He was then forced to sell their home. Lilli became ill with scarlet fever and had to be hospitalized. After she recovered, she joined her mother in Vienna, where she had gone with her sister-in-law. On July 13, 1939, Lilli was sent on a Kindertransport to Great Britain. As they waited at the train station, her father put both hands on her head and blessed her.

    Lilli was sent to live with a group of Jewish refugee girls at the Hackney hostel in London, but soon transferred to Cockley Cley estate in Swaffham, Norfolk. She worked as a seamstress. The war ended with Germany’s surrender on May 7, 1945. Lilli eventually learned that her parents Wilhelm and Johanna, unable to secure visas, were deported from Vienna to the ghetto in Opole Lubelskie in German occupied Poland on February 26, 1941. In spring 1942, the Germans liquidated the ghetto. The Jewish residents were sent to Belzec and Sobibor killing centers and Lilli's parents presumably perished there.

    Lilli returned to postwar Vienna in 1946 or 1947 as a member of the Young Austria Refugee, a group dedicated to creating a democratic Austria. She was reunited with her mother's sister Berta Ohme, who had not been deported because her husband was not Jewish. Berta had preserved a collection of documents, correspondence, and photographs that Lilli’s mother gave her just before she was deported to Opole. Along with these, she gave Lilli correspondence sent by Johanna and Wilhelm from Opole. Lilli married Max Tauber in 1954. Max, who was also Jewish, was born in Vienna on June 11, 1920, and had lived in Jerusalem. They have two sons. Lilli’s brother Edi lived in Israel until his death in 1963, age 49.

    Physical Details

    Classification
    Dress Accessories
    Category
    Neckwear
    Object Type
    Collars (lcsh)
    Physical Description
    Rectangular, sheer, lightweight, white and raised blue polka dot cloth collar with angled sides. There is a mother of pearl button sewn on the top right corner and a light brown thread button loop sewn on the top left corner. There are machine sewn seams on the top and sides and a handsewn repair on the top left edge.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 2.750 inches (6.985 cm) | Width: 15.750 inches (40.005 cm)
    Materials
    overall : cloth, mother of pearl, thread

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The collar was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by Lilli Schischa Tauber.
    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:
    2024-10-03 13:06:24
    This page:
    http:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn514981

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