Overview
- Description
- The Herman Schwartz photograph collection consists of four photographs of corpses at Dachau concentration camp at liberation and one photograph of three liberated Jewish prisoners at Dachau showing the tattoo marks on their arms.
- Date
-
creation:
1945
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Herman Schwartz
- Collection Creator
- Herman Schwartz
- Biography
-
Herman Benjamin Schwartz was born on January 9, 1918, to Morris and Elizabeth Izerte Schwartz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Jewish. His father was born in 1887 in the Russian Empire and later immigrated to America. His mother was born in 1892 in Germany and arrived in America by 1910. She and Morris married in 1914. Morris had two older brothers: Isidore (1914-2006) and David (1916-1988.) On October 31, 1918, when Herman was ten months old, his father died of pneumonia following influenza during the Spanish flu epidemic. By 1920, the family was living in Trenton, New Jersey. His mother later remarried Jacob Fritz. Herman had at least one half-sibling. Jacob passed away by 1930. Herman was an accountant.
In December 1941, the United States entered the war. Herman enlisted in the US Army on August 22, 1942. He was a private in the Warrant Officers Branch when he deployed to Europe. He served in combat in France and Germany. He was at Dachau concentration camp in Germany soon after its liberation on April 29, 1945. At the end of the war in May 1945, Herman was a First Lieutenant.
He married Elva Sylvia Deutchman (1924-2010). The couple resided in Trenton and had three sons. Herman, 82, passed away on August 22, 2000.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Photographs.
- Extent
-
1 folder
- System of Arrangement
- The Herman Schwartz photograph collection is arranged in a single series.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Herman Schwartz donated the Herman Schwartz photograph collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-02-24 14:20:45
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn521516
Download & Licensing
- In Copyright - Use Permitted
- Terms of Use
- This record is not digitized and cannot be downloaded online.
In-Person Research
- Request 7 Days in Advance of Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
-
Request in Shapell Center Reading Room
Bowie, MD
Contact Us
Also in Herman Schwartz collection
The collection consists of a Torah mantle and photographs relating to the experiences of Herman Schwartz while a soldier in the United States Army in France and Germany during World War II.
Date: 1944-1945
Green velvet Torah mantle with 10 Commandments found by a US soldier
Object
Damaged green velvet Torah mantle found by Herman Schwartz, an American soldier, in the debris of a synagogue in Saverne, [Sabern or in German, Zabern or Schwenheim] France, desecrated by German forces at the beginning of the German occupation, June 1940-November 1944. He cut the mantle out of a pile of rubble with his bayonet. It has an applique of the 10 Commandment tablets with elaborate gold metal thread embroidery, a gift of the Women's Society in 1905. Jews had lived in the town since the 14th century. German troops destroyed the upper level of the synagogue, built in 1898-1900, to remove all traces of its Jewish origins. The NS Fliegerkorps, a flying corps, used the building as a training center. The Germans expelled the Jews to make the town Judenfrei [free of Jews.] Herman found the mantle as his battalion moved across the Alsace-Lorraine region of France and into Germany in late 1944 - early 1945. The synagogue was restored by the small Jewish community after the war.
