Red monogrammed knit purse made by an inmate in a forced labor camp
- Date
-
use:
1942-1945
- Geography
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creation:
Ober Altstadt (Concentration camp);
Horni Stare Mesto (Czech Republic)
- Classification
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Dress Accessories
- Category
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Carried dress accessories
- Object Type
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Handbags (lcsh)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Fanni Reznicki
Purse made by 17 year old Fanni Wolhgeschaffen when she was a slave laborer in Oberalstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. She worked in a textile factory and made the bag from fabric remnants. After the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, Fanni and her family were imprisoned in the Jaworzno ghetto. In 1942, Fanni was deported to an all women's concentration camp and then to Oberalstadt. The Germans evacuated the camp in May 1945 and while on that death march, the prisoners were liberated by the Soviet Army on May 10. Fanny returned to Poland where she was reunited with her father; they soon relocated to Germany. She learned that her mother and younger sister had been murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. Fanni was able to get to Palestine in 1945 with the assistance of Betar, a Revisionist Zionist youth organization; her father arrived there later.
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Record last modified: 2021-02-10 09:18:28
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn519047
Also in This Collection
Weimar Germany Reichsbanknote, 10,000 marks
Object
German bank note that belonged to 17 year-old Fanni Reznicki. After the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, Fanni and her family were imprisoned in the Jaworzno ghetto. In 1942, Fanni was deported to an all women's concentration camp and then to Oberalstadt. The Germans evacuated the camp in May 1945 and while on that death march, the prisoners were liberated by the Soviet Army on May 10. Fanny returned to Poland where she was reunited with her father; they soon relocated to Germany. She learned that her mother and younger sister had been murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. Fanni was able to get to Palestine in 1945 with the assistance of Betar, a Revisionist Zionist youth organization; her father arrived there later.
Fanni Reznicki papers
Document
Correspondence: postcards received by Fanni Reznicki while she was interned as a slave laborer in Oberaltstadt, a sub-camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp; postcards sent by Regina Wohlgeschaffen (donor's mother?) in Jaworzno, Poland, all dated 1942. Fanni was in slave labor through May 1945, when she was liberated and returned to Sosnowiec, Poland; Poland and Czechoslovakia; in German. Photographs and letters kept in bag made by Fanni in Oberaltstadt.