Ronald W. Schonfeld collection

Overview

Collection Summary

The collection consists of seven pieces of Theresienstadt scrip and a Star of David badge relating to the experiences of Rene W. Schonfeldt (later Ronald Schonfeld) during the Holocaust in German occupied Netherlands and as a prisoner in Westerbork internment camp and Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Photograph albums, loose photographs illustrating the experiences of the Schonfeld family in Germany and the Netherlands. Hans, Hanna, and Rene emigrated from Germany to the Netherlands before the war. The family was deported on September 6, 1944 to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in the Czech Republic. Although Hanna and Rene renamed in Theresienstadt and were liberated there, on September 29, Hans was deported to Auschwitz, where he is presumed to have died on February 28, 1945. Collection includes numerous photographs and photograph albums dating from the turn of the 20th century from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Provenance

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Ronald W. Schonfeld. An accretion of additional materials was added to the collection in 2017 by his widow, Barbara Schonfeld.