Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Briefcase used by Harry Ray (Herszl Rabinowicz) to keep the correspondence from his family, including his brother, the cantor Pinchas Rabinowicz, from the Warsaw ghetto in Poland and the Soviet Union during the Holocaust. When the war ended in 1945, several family members relocated to the Hasenecke displaced persons camp near Kassel, Germany. In June 1949, due to Harry's efforts, they were able to emigrate to the United States. Harry, his wife, and their daughter had emigrated from Warsaw to the United States in August 1938.
- Date
-
use:
1938-1948
- Geography
-
use:
Chicago (Ill.)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Terri Lynch
- Markings
- interior, printed on cloth label : TOP GRAIN / COWHIDE / [?] COWHIDE PARTITIONS / [in octagon shape] : DOPP / BILT / CHICAGO / [below octagon shape] : ®
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Harry Ray
- Biography
-
Herszl Rabinowicz, born on September 17, 1904, emigrated from Warsaw, Poland, to the United States in August 1938. He eventually settled in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife and daughter and changed his name to Harry Ray. His brother, Pinchas Rabinowicz, remained in Poland with his family, where he was the cantor in Miedzyrzec Podlaski. In September 1939, after the German invasion of Poland, Pinchas and his family fled to Soviet occupied eastern Poland. In the early 1940, the Soviets demanded that refugees choose to become Soviet citizens, return to German occupied Poland, or do nothing. Pinchas and his extended family chose to do nothing and were sent to labor camps near Komi. At the end of July 1941, nearly a month after Germany’s surprise attack on the Soviet Union, the Russians declared a general amnesty and released Polish citizens from the camps. The Rabinowicz family went south to Uzbekistan. When the war ended in 1945, they relocated to the Hasenecke displaced persons camp near Kassel, Germany. In June 1949, due to the efforts of Pinchas’s brother, Herszl, in Chicago, they were able to emigrate to the United States. Harry passed away, age 76, in 1980.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Classification
-
Containers
- Category
-
Luggage
- Object Type
-
Briefcases (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Rectangular, dark brown, leather case with a gold colored zipper closure. There are 2 rectangular handles at the top, made from leather covered metal bars that can be raised or lowered through 2 holes punched through leather panels attached to the zipper. There is light brown stitching around the zipper and the edges of the case. Three accordion folds in the bottom of the bag mirror the interior which is divided into 3 sections by 2 textured leather partitions. A yellow ribbon with manufacturer’s information is sewn inside.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 7.750 inches (19.685 cm) | Width: 14.000 inches (35.56 cm) | Depth: 2.620 inches (6.655 cm)
- Materials
- overall : leather, metal, cloth, dye
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 briefcase was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Terri Lynch, the daughter of Harry Ray.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 18:28:56
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn517625
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Also in Harry Ray collection
The collection consists of an artifact, correspondence, and prewar photographs relating to the experiences of Harry Ray (Rabinowicz), a resident of the United States, and his relatives in the Warsaw ghetto in Poland and in exile in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust.
Date: 1938-1948
Terri Lynch papers
Document
The collection consists of correspondence to Terri Lynch's parents in Chicago, Ill., from relatives in the ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, and in the Soviet Union; correspondence by Terri Lynch's parents to different branches of the United States government in reference to immigration and contact of relatives; and photographs depicting relatives in Warsaw before World War II.
