Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Handknit, green, short sleeve sweater worn by 7 year old Krystina Chiger when she lived in hiding in the sewers of Lvov, Poland (Lviv, Ukraine), from June 1943 to July 1944. Krystyna had watched her paternal grandmother knit the sweater in the home they shared before the German invasion of Poland in 1939. After the German occupation of Lvov in June 1941, Krystyna watched from hiding as this grandmother and Krystyna’s young cousin, Inga, were loaded into a truck for deportation. Her grandmother waved in her direction and the guard hit her in the head with his rifle. The transport was presumably for Belzec extermination camp. The Germans moved all the Jews into a ghetto. When Krystyna’s father learned that the Germans planned to liquidate the ghetto in June 1943, he paid a sewer worker, Leopold Socha, who with two other workers, Stefan Wroblewski and Jerzy Kowalow, agreed to help them hide in the underground sewer pipes. Krystyna, her parents, Ignacy and Paulina, and her brother, Pawel, age 3, hid in the sewers with 17 others. When ten of the group decided to leave because of the horrible living conditions, they were shot soon after they emerged. Ignacy ran out of money to pay Socha, but he and the others continued to bring food and care for the family. On July 23, 1944, the city was liberated by the Soviet Army. On July 27, Krystyna and her family heard loud knocking on the sewer grate above. It was Socha and the others, telling them that they were free. In March 1945, the family moved to Krakow.
- Date
-
use:
1943 June-1944 July
- Geography
-
use:
Lvov (Poland) (historic);
Lviv (Ukraine)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Kristine Keren
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Kristine Keren
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Clothing and Dress
- Category
-
Children's clothing
- Object Type
-
Sweaters (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Child’s short sleeved light green sweater handknit in a broken rib stitch. The v-shaped slit neckline and the puff sleeves have braided yarn inserted through an open channel of rectangles near the crocheted, scalloped edges. The neck drawstring is long and would be tied in a bow when worn. The sweater has stains and wear from heavy use. It has been restored and reinforced with cloth.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 13.500 inches (34.29 cm) | Width: 9.875 inches (25.083 cm)
- Materials
- overall : yarn, cloth
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Hidden children (Holocaust)--Poland--Biography. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives. Jewish children in the Holocaust--Ukraine--Lviv--Biography. Jews--Persecution--Ukraine--Lviv--Biography. Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust--Ukraine--Lviv--Biography. World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Ukraine--Personal narratives, Jewish.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The sweater was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Kristine Keren.
- 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:
- 2024-04-30 09:49:53
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn515606
Download & Licensing
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