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AEG motor placed on a workbench used to conceal a Jewish family’s hiding place

Object | Accession Number: 1992.240.12

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    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Electric motor placed on a workbench that concealed one of the hiding places Stefan Petri built in his home in Wawer, Poland. Stefan, his wife, Janina, and their son, Marian, were Polish Catholics. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and began subjugating the Polish people. Uncertain of what might occur, Stefan built a basement hiding place concealed by a cabinet. In mid-1942, the Germans deported 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka killing center. Stefan learned that his Jewish dentist and friend, Dr. Szapiro, his wife Ela, and their adult sons, Jerzy and Marek had escaped from the ghetto, where they had been since the fall of 1940. He felt obligated to save them and decided to hide them in his home, despite the great risk to his family. Neighbors grew suspicious and reported him to the Gestapo for hiding Jews. He was beaten and the home searched twice with dogs, but the hidden space was not discovered. Several people knew of its existence, so in early 1943, Stefan dug out a second space below it. It was accessed through a trap door under a workbench piled with machine parts and tools to make it inconspicuous. Jadwiga, a local shopkeeper, helped supply food for the hidden family. The Szapiros remained hidden for two years inside Stefan's home, until liberation by the Soviet Army on September 11, 1944.
    Date
    use:  1943-1944 September 11
    manufacture:  after 1887-before 1943
    Geography
    use: Wawer (Poland)
    manufacture: Germany
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jadwiga Petri
    Markings
    top, embossed and engraved, metal plate : AEG / GLEICHSTROM MOTOR / TYPE AN05 n DREHZ 3400 / NR 2560497 / V 220 A 0.9 / W 185 PS / PLNR 112026 [DIRECT CURRENT MOTOR / Drehzahl (rotation speed)]
    Contributor
    Subject: Stefan Petri
    Manufacturer: Allgemeine Elektricita?ts-Gesellschaft (Germany)
    Biography
    Stefan Petri (1899-1986) was born in Poland, which was part of the Russian Empire until the 1917 Russian Revolution. Stefan was an engineer and lived in Wawer, now a suburb of Warsaw, with his wife Janina nee Niewiarowska (1898 - ?), their son Marian (1929-?), and some of Janina’s family members. Stefan was Greek Catholic and his wife was Roman Catholic. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and much of the country was under aerial bombardment for weeks. On September 17, the Soviet Army invaded from the east, and the two occupiers partitioned the country as agreed upon in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed a month earlier. By October, Warsaw was controlled by German forces. The occupation government sought to brutally subjugate the Polish people, and used propaganda to denounce Polish people as filthy, bestial, and subhuman. Stefan, uncertain of what might occur, built a hiding place in the cellar of his home. The access point was hidden in a cabinet in the laundry room.

    In the fall of 1942, Stefan decided to hide a Jewish family, the Szapiros, even though there were severe penalties, including death, for anyone caught hiding Jews. He had known Kazimierz Kaufman Szapiro (1888 – 1977) and his Swedish wife, Ela Mandelsztam Szapiro (1887 – 1957), both dentists, and their sons, Marek (1917 -2002) a neurosurgeon and Jerzy (1920 -2011), a medical student, before the war and felt he was obligated to provide assistance. They had fled the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jewish population had been segregated in the fall of 1940. From July 22 - September 12, 1942, the Germans carried out mass deportations to Treblinka killing center, murdering around 300,000 Jews. The family escaped with the help of a Polish friend, Irena Wroblewska, and her brother. Irena took them to hide in a tollgate in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, and from there Stefan came late one night and took them to his home. He hid them in the cellar space concealed by the cabinet. The Petri family’s neighbors became suspicious of the activity in their home, and someone told the Gestapo that they were hiding escaped Jews. Stefan was interrogated and beaten. The home was closely searched twice with dogs, but nothing was discovered because Stefan had spread nicotine powder on the cellar floor to confuse the dogs’ sense of smell. People outside Stefan’s family knew about the hiding place he had built during the invasion, which made its discovery likely. In early 1943, Stefan built a second hiding place by digging out a space below the first cellar hiding space. This space was accessed through a trap door underneath a large workbench where he stored a variety of tools, locksmith’s instruments, and electrical parts. The Szapiro's could stay in the apartment at night and had to hide in the cellar during the day. A few neighbors, such as a local shopkeeper, Jadwiga, helped provide food for the family. For two years, the Szapiros stayed hidden day and night in Stefan’s home.

    In early September 1944, the region was liberated by the Soviet Army, now part of the Allied Forces. Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Jerzy Szapiro became a professor of medicine in Warsaw. Jerzy remembered how Stefan took on this dangerous task as if it were a straightforward matter, and displayed in the face of threats and actual danger, steadfast courage and moral strength. Marek Szapiro immigrated to the United States. Stefan’s wife, Janina, died. Later, he married Jadwiga, the neighbor that had helped feed the Szapiros. In 1981, Stefan, his first wife Janina, and their son Marian were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Marek’s memoirs were published in 2007, including diaries from the war years and details of chess games played between himself and Jerzy.

    Physical Details

    Language
    German
    Classification
    Tools and Equipment
    Genre/Form
    Machinery.
    Physical Description
    Cylindrical, black-painted, metal electric motor with a hollow, T-shaped base mount on the underside. Both ends of the cylinder are enclosed by domed, vented endcaps with rounded edges anchored by large, flat-head screws. The rectangular vents expose the rusty mechanical parts on the interior. The center of each endcap is raised, with a flat disc screwed to the center. On one end, a thick shaft extends horizontally from the center, with a small, thick metal disc at the end. Anchored to the disc is a second small, thick disc made of a compact, fibrous material, possibly a buffing pad. Screwed to one side of the base is a rectangular, burgundy plastic plate with two rows of circular, metal connections for wires embedded in it. Above the plastic plate, on the side body, there are two rectangular metal plates attached with nails. The smaller, top plate bears the manufacture’s name, while technical electrical details are engraved on a larger plate beneath it. The paint is flaking throughout and many of the exposed metal parts are rusty throughout.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 12.750 inches (32.385 cm) | Width: 23.750 inches (60.325 cm) | Depth: 9.750 inches (24.765 cm)
    Materials
    overall : metal, paint, plastic, fiber

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The electric motor was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992 by Jadwiga Petri, the wife of Stefan Petri.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-06-14 07:09:17
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn6791

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