German Kennkarte (identification card) issued by the police president in Berlin on March 16, 1939 to Harry Israel Kastan (b. March 20, 1891), a Jew living in Berlin.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 62596

Overview

Caption: German Kennkarte (identification card) issued by the police president in Berlin on March 16, 1939 to Harry Israel Kastan (b. March 20, 1891), a Jew living in Berlin.
Date: 1939 March 16
Locale: Berlin, [Berlin] Germany
Variant Locale: Berlin-Buckow
Berlin-Mariendorf
Berlin-Ploetzensee
Berlin-Reinickendorf
Berlin-Tempelhof
Berlin-Wannsee
Berlin-Schlachtensee
Berlin-Duppel
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Hannah Kastan Weiss

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Hannah Kastan Weiss

Source Record ID: Collections: 1996.23.74

Keyword: DOCUMENTS IDENTIFICATION PAPERS JEWS (GERMAN) NAME CHANGING STAMPS (DOCUMENT)
Photo Designation: JEWISH LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY -- Documents

Biography: Hannah Weiss (born Hannah Kastan) is the daughter of Guenter and Sara Kastan. She was born November 23, 1938 in Berlin. Her mother and father were Jewish, her paternal grandfather was Jewish and her paternal grandmother was not. During World War II her parents were pressed into forced labor at the Siemens plant in Berlin, where they remained until March 1943. Hannah spent weekends with her parents but lived with her grandparents in Berlin during the week. In March 1943 Hannah was rounded-up with her parents and taken to the deportation assembly center at the Berlin Jewish Home for the Aged. Hannah's grandmother spotted her there and managed to smuggle her out. For the next two years Hannah lived with her grandparents, who registered her as their own child. She had to remain indoors and hide whenever there was a knock on the door, but otherwise led a normal life. Hannah's mother was never heard from again after her deportation and is presumed to have perished in Auschwitz. Her father continued to send mail to his parents and daughter until January 1945. He was assigned to forced labor in the Buna factory in Auschwitz III (Monowitz). Guenter was reportedly beaten and then shot to death by an SS guard on February 28, 1945, during the death march from Auschwitz to Germany.