Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Forced laborer identification tag 578 issued to Bronia Eiger-Sitner in Lippstadt, Germany after her arrival in late November 1944. Bronia was deported from Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland as part of a transport of 300 hundred women that arrived on November 23, 1944. She served as a slave laborer in a munitions factory in Lippstadt, which was operating as an all-female subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. Each woman in her transport was assigned a Buchenwald prisoner number between 25001 and 27000. Bronia’s number was 25578, and the last three digits of this number were used on her prisoner identification tag. The prisoners were housed on the grounds of the factory, Lippstadt Eisen und Metallwerke, and produced ammunition, hand grenades, and aircraft parts. The heart and mezuzah charms attached to the tag may have been added postwar.
- Date
-
Issued:
after 1944 November 23-before 1945 March
- Geography
-
issue:
Lippstadt (Germany)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ania R. Hoptman
- Markings
- front, engraved, white : Häftling / 578 [prisoner]
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Bronia Eiger-Sitner
- Biography
-
Bronia Eiger-Sitner (previously Bronka Eiger, 1910-?) was born in Radom, Poland, to Smull Ilava Eiger and his wife. It appears that she worked as a tailor or seamstress. Prior to late 1944, Bronia was transported to Auschwitz concentration camp in the German-occupied region of Poland. In November 1944, Bronia was one of 90 plus Polish women in a larger, 300-woman transport of slave laborers deported to an all-female subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. This group of women was taken to Lippstadt, and assigned to work as forced laborers in a munitions factory. Each woman was assigned a Buchenwald prisoner number between 25001 and 27000. Bronia’s number was 25578. The prisoners were housed on the grounds of the factory, Lippstadt Eisen und Metallwerke, and produced ammunition, hand grenades, and aircraft parts. The prisoners were evacuated from the camp in March 1945 and sent on a forced march toward Bergen Belsen concentration camp. The march ended in early April when the guards abandoned the group, and not long after troops from the United States liberated the women.
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Classification
-
Identifying Artifacts
- Category
-
Badges
- Object Type
-
Forced labor badges (ushmm)
- Genre/Form
- Badges
- Physical Description
- Circular, black, plastic (possibly bakelite) identification tag with a three-digit prisoner number engraved on the front. The surface is coated in black, but beneath the tag is white, so the engraved numbers appear in white. Attached to the tag with blue thread are two, small charms: a red, plastic heart and a silver-colored, metal mezuzah containing scripture and a prayer on a rolled-up piece of paper.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) | Width: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm)
- Materials
- overall : plastic, metal, paper, ink, thread
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Forced labor--Germany--History--20th century.
- Geographic Name
- Radom (Poland) Oświęcim (Poland) Lippstadt (Germany)
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The identification tag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Ania R. Hoptman, a relative of Bronia Eiger-Sitner.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-12-19 09:37:59
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn891
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Also in Bronia Eiger-Sitner collection
The collection consists of a forced labor identification tag relating to the experiences of Bronia Eiger-Sitner in Germany during the Holocaust and a photograph of her relative, Ania R. Hoptman, as part of a Jewish student delegation laying a wreath at Dachau after the war.
Date: 1944-1950
Photograph of wreath-laying ceremony at Dachau
Document
Image of a delegation of members of the Jewish students union of Munich, Germany, laying a wreath at Dachau in 1950. Ania R. Hoptman (donor) is pictured at center.
