Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Drawing commemorating the liberation of Dachau concentration camp created by Fred Rudkowski, a former prisoner. It depicts a lookout tower and barracks at the camp. Rudkowski entrusted the drawing on his departure from the camp in July 1945 to one of his nurses, Irene Halmi, in the US Army hospital where he had recovered from the inhumane conditions he had endured as an inmate. Lieutenant Halmi was a nurse in the 127th Evacuation Hospital which arrived in Dachau on May 2, 1945, soon after its liberation on April 29 by American troops.
- Artwork Title
- Dachau 29 IV. 43
- Date
-
commemoration:
1945 April 29
received: 1945 July
- Geography
-
creation:
Dachau (Concentration camp);
Dachau (Germany)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Irene Halmi
- Contributor
-
Artist:
Fred Rudkowski
Subject: Fred Rudkowski
Subject: Irene Halmi
- Biography
-
Fred Rudkowski was a patient at the 127th Evacuation Hospital, United States Army, at Dachau concentration camp after its liberation on April 29, 1945. He recovered following treatment and was able to leave the camp in July 1945.
Irene Halmi was born in 1921 in Palmerton, PA, to Lajos and Julia Nemeth Halmi. She had three sisters and three brothers. She graduated from the Palmerton Hospital School of Nursing. During World War II, she was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Nursing Corps in both in the US and in the European Theater. Dachau concentration camp was liberated by the United States Army on April 29, 1945. The 127th Evacuation Hospital, the unit with which Irene served, arrived on May 2, 1945, to assess and to care for the thousands of former inmates of the just liberated camp. The three story building occupied by the hospital personnel was previously the headquarters for the German SS [Schutzstaffel, Protection Squadrons] unit of the camp. A nearby one story building housed the patient care facility. After leaving the military, Irene received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950. She returned to Palmerton and resumed her career as a nurse. She died, age 91, on August 14, 2012.
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Art
- Category
-
Drawings
- Object Type
-
Color drawing (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Multi-colored drawing created with pencil, colored pencil, and ink on a wrinkled, slightly soiled white cloth. It depicts a barracks, lookout tower, and wall at Dachau concentration camp as if seen from a distance through a window. The drawing is within the top rectangular portion of an outlined pentagon. The bottom flat topped triangular section of the pentagon has text written inside with a smaller pink-colored triangle with the date of liberation within.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 6.380 inches (16.205 cm) | Width: 3.870 inches (9.83 cm)
- Materials
- overall : cloth, colored pencil, graphite, ink
- Inscription
- front, within triangle in lower portion of image, black ink : DACHAU / 29. IV. 43
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Concentration camp inmates--Germany--Dachau. Concentration camps--Germany--Dachau--Pictorial works. Nurses--United States. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Pictorial works. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation.
- Corporate Name
- United States. Army. Evacuation Hospital, 127th
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Irene Halmi.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-08-25 16:50:15
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn519128
Download & Licensing
In-Person Research
- By Appointment
- Request 21 Days in Advance of Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
- Request to See This Object
Contact Us
Also in Irene Halmi collection
The collection consists of documents and a photograph relating to the experiences of Irene Halmi as a nurse in the United States Army hospital in Dachau concentration camp following its liberation and artifacts relating to the experiences of Fred Rudkowski, an inmate in Dachau before and after liberation.
Date: 1945
Irene Halmi papers
Document
Photograph of Irene Halmi [donor] in front of the former SS barracks in the Dachau concentration camp, where American medical personnel were housed upon arrival and a photocopy of the Dachau concentration camp visitor pass; issued to the donor in May 1945.
Drawing of trees, vegetation and buildings at Dachau concentration camp made by a recently liberated inmate
Object
Drawing of Dachau concentration camp created by Fred Rudkowski, a former prisoner. It depicts several tall pine trees, a street, and buildings. The three story building had formerly housed the German SS unit and now was used to house hospital personnel; the one story building became a patient unit. When he left the camp n July 1945, Rudkowski entrusted the drawing to one of his nurses, Irene Halmi, in the US Army hospital where he had recovered from the inhumane conditions he endured as an inmate. Halmi thought the drawing significant because of what it did not show – the barbed wire behind the tall pine trees which hid the prison status of the camp. Dachau was liberated by US troops on April 29, 1945. Lieutenant Halmi was a nurse in the 127th Evacuation Hospital which arrived in Dachau on May 2, 1945, soon after its liberation on April 29 by American troops.
