03. Ghettos

The phase prior to the Jews’ deportation to the concentration and death camps was characterized by social, economic and physical isolation. The Jews were incarcerated in ghettos, where disease was rife, and extreme hunger and cold were causes of constant suffering. Despite the daily existential battle a spirited cultural life continued; festivals were observed and social and communal activities continued. The artifacts that remain from the ghetto period bear witness to this incredible triumph of the spirit over life’s harsh reality.

A chess game played by a young girl and boy in the Mogilev ghetto in Transnistria

Thirteen-year-old Chaya Stecolchic from Czernowitz became friends with the youth Leone Goldstein in the Mogilev ghetto. Leone, who had a chess set, taught her to play the game, and when they were released from the ghetto he gave the handcrafted game to her. On the reverse of the chessboard he wrote: “In remembrance of the difficult but happy days 24/4/1944”. The inscription reflects how the game of chess enabled the teenagers to briefly forget the hardships of their surroundings and to... Continue reading

Armband that belonged to Paulina Chiger who survived with her family in the sewers of Lwow thanks to Leopold Socha

Leopold Socha, a resident of Lwow, knew the sewer system of the city well because he had made use of it to evade the authorities. After the Soviet occupation of the city he worked for the Sanitation Department, and his familiarity with the sewage system and his position facilitated the saving of 10 Jews. Continue reading

Pendant made by Gershon Henoch Kessel for his wife, Frania, in the Piotrków ghetto

In 1942 Gershon Henoch and Frania Kessel, together with their three-year-old daughter, Sara, and other members of the family were deported to the Piotrków ghetto where "Aktions"- brutal Nazi round-ups of Jews, starvation and disease were part of daily life. Despite the harsh conditions and the struggle to survive during this period, Gershon Henoch managed to make a pendant to give to his wife as a present. The pendant was crafted as a book with a photograph of Frania inside, and was decorated... Continue reading

Warsaw ghetto escapee Esther Bromberg's powder compact and hairbrush

Esther and Max Bromberg, a young couple from Warsaw, were confined in the Warsaw ghetto with their daughter Lila. Before the war Max, a linguist, was employed as a translator and Esther was a secretary. In the ghetto they both worked as hairdressers. As living conditions deteriorated Max decided to try to smuggle his wife and daughter out of the ghetto. Her parents wrapped Lila in a thick wad of cloth and blankets, and bribed a Pole standing outside the ghetto to catch the child when Max and... Continue reading

Cigarette box that Leon Lederman received in Lodz Ghetto

This cigarette box, adorned with an impressive engraving of a locomotive at a station in the Lodz ghetto, was given to Yad Vashem’s Artifacts Collection in 2012. The depiction, and the dedicatory inscription within, give a few clues regarding the identity of the person who received the box: Leon Lederman, who served in an administrative capacity in the ghetto. To Leon LedermanOn the second year"Radegast Station"With gratitude,Labor and ManagementLitzmannstadt [Lodz] ghetto, February 4,... Continue reading

Prayer book that Moshe Malc used when he and his family were hidden for twenty months above Franciszka Halamajowa’s pigsty in Poland

"You never know when you do a favor for someone what it will bring eventually. In 1936, my father and grandfather were travelling with a horse and wagon and they stopped for a woman who was waiting at the side of the road with a lot of parcels - this was how they met Franciszka"(From the testimony of Chaim Malc)Franciszka Halamajowa knew the Malc family from before the war. When they approached her with the request to hide them, she agreed without hesitation, despite the danger, and... Continue reading

Doll Smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto

Zofia Rosner or Yael - the Hebrew name she adopted after the war - was a little girl during the Holocaust. The Nazis had taken her father in the early days of the occupation, and she and her mother were incarcerated in the Warsaw ghetto. Yael’s mother was connected to the underground and became involved in smuggling activities. She would disappear for several days at a time, leaving the little girl alone. The mother found a doll’s head, and created the doll for her daughter. She sewed on... Continue reading

Monopoly game made in the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1943

The Monopoly game was made in the graphics workshop in Theresienstadt as part of the ghetto’s underground activity. It was drawn by Oswald Poeck, an artist who was expelled from Prague to Terezin in November 1941 and was later deported to his death in Auschwitz in September 1944. In addition to entertaining the children, it was intended to provide them with information about ghetto life. The board displays a drawing of the ghetto. Significant ghetto sites are stations in the game: the prison,... Continue reading

Shirt that Shmuel Daich received from his sister when he left the Kovno ghetto to join the partisans

Menachem & Zeitel Daich were confined in the Kovno ghetto with eight of their nine children. Menachem and his sixteen-year-old son Shmuel were sent to forced labor. One day, when they returned from the night shift, there was an Aktion in the ghetto. Menachem, who understood the approaching danger, decided to divide his large family into smaller groups so that they would go through the selection separately as he quoted: "At least one group should remain" (as learned from the biblical story... Continue reading

Six chess pieces from the game that the Freiburg family took into hiding

After the German Nazis murdered the inhabitants of Monasterzyska and it was declared Judenrein (free of Jews),the few Jews who remained, among them Shoshana and Aryeh Freiburg and their eleven-year-old daughter Shulamit, were sent to the ghetto in Buczacz. The family managed to avoid capture in Aktion after Aktion by hiding in different places."I used to plan how I would survive… I imagined that if we were caught, I would stand in the middle, not on the edges and I'd hold... Continue reading

Chess pieces found scattered on the sidewalk next to the Giske family home in Lodz

"I donated the chess board in memory of the children who I always see in my mind"After surviving close to four years in the Lodz ghetto, Shmuel Giske and his three daughters, Rachel, 27, Malka, 24 and Liliana, 16, were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Continue reading

Volume of Tzena U’rena belonging to Ruda Rayzla Baum in the Lodz Ghetto

This volume of Tzena U’rena* was part of the Museum Collection for many years, but until recently, Yad Vashem knew little about its former owner and her fate. The handwritten inscription appears on the back page:Lodz 1941Ruda Rayzla BaumLitzmanstadt Getto15/3/1940-15/9/1941 Thanks to research that was carried out in preparation for the opening of the new Holocaust History Museum, and with the help of the Central Database for Shoah Victims’ Names, new details about the identity of Ruda... Continue reading

A calendar for the Jewish Year 5704 (1943-44) from Theresienstadt

In the early years of Yad Vashem’s existence a copy of a Jewish calendar for 5704 (1943-44) from Theresienstadt was received into the collection. The pocket-sized calendar was created using a blueprint technique that enabled copies to be made. Additional copies of this calendar are in the Yad Vashem Archives. The calendar is written in German and Hebrew and includes the times of the onset of the Sabbath, the holidays and the calculated times of sunrise and sunset throughout the year. The... Continue reading

A jute bag Sidonie Asherova received in Theresientstadt ghetto

Sidonie was born in 1866 in Komarno, Slovakia, to the Schlesinger family. Her first husband passed away leaving her with three children – Odon, Yenka and Ignatz. She remarried in 1902 to Yisrael Samuel Ascher, the head of the Jewish community in Zlate Moravce, himself a widower with eight children. In 1906 the couple had a child, Hugo. After Yisrael Samuel’s death in 1932, Sidonie remained by herself in Zlate Moravce. She was protected from deportation until 1944 as a result of her son’s... Continue reading

Avraham Hellmann’s Shofar that was used on the High Holy Days in Theresienstadt

Avraham-Adolf Hellmann was born in Lencica, Poland in 1882. In 1918 he married Charlotte nee Wohlmuth and the couple settled in Nikolsburg (today Mikulov, Czech Republic). Avraham served as Head Cantor in the community as well as being the founder of the Jewish Museum of Bohemia & Moravia in the city. The Hellmanns had three children –Max-Mordecai, b. 1919, Lilly, b. 1921 and Edith-Rina, b. 1923. Avraham Hellmann’s name became known to us initially, from an exemplar of a Jewish calendar... Continue reading

Prison garb worn by Ruth Bensinger, who was deported from the Vilna ghetto to the Kaiserwald camp in Riga

Ruth Bensinger was 17 when she departed Germany in 1938 to study at the Beit Yaacov Seminar in Krakow, Poland, as schools in Germany were closed to Jews. When the war broke out, Ruth was in Warsaw visiting a friend. She lost contact with her during the bombardment of the city, and was left alone. Ruth tried to reach France, where she had family members with French citizenship, but the French authorities refused entry to people who only held German citizenship. In an attempt to leave Poland,... Continue reading

Dress that Genia Dvorkin wore in the camps in Estonia and Germany

Genia Dvorkin was 15 years old when she was incarcerated in the Kovno ghetto in 1942, together with her parents Shmuel and Sonia and her four siblings. Her little brother and sister, Baruch and Nechama, were murdered in one of the Aktions in the Kovno ghetto. About a year after the family's incarceration in the ghetto, Genia, her parents and her two remaining siblings were deported to camps in Estonia. Her father and her brother Ellias were murdered in the Klooga camp. Her mother and her... Continue reading

Bracelet made for Lola Gebiertig by Boas Leser in Oranienburg forced labor camp during the Holocaust

On the fourth of June 1942 the Yiddish composer and folksinger Marcus (Mordecai) Birtig (b. 1877), known by his pen-name Mordecai Gebuertig, was murdered. Gebuertig, who made his living as a carpenter, composed songs and became one of the most well known Yiddish composers in the Jewish world. His song “Unzer Shtetl Brennt” (“Our little town is burning”) was written following the pogrom carried out in 1936 in the town of Przytyk in Poland. After the occupation of Poland... Continue reading

Medallion engraved with the name of Tamara Dornfest

Tamara Dornfest as born on 4 February 1942 in Arnhem, the Netherlands, to Bella and Lucian. Her big brother, Isidore, was born in 1940. During the war, the Dornfest family was deported to the Westerbork transit camp, and from there to the Theresienstadt ghetto. In October 1944, they were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where Bella, Lucian, Isidore and Tamara were all murdered. The medallion engraved with Tamara's name, birthdate and place of birth is made from a silver coin... Continue reading

Family memento from before the war: a locket with photos of Leo and Chava Fürst

Leo and Chava Fürst, originally from the Czech Republic, lived with their children Shlomo and Margit in Leipzig, Germany. After the Nazis rose to power they decided to return to the Czech Republic. In 1941, twenty-year-old Shlomo was sent with a group of Jews to the Terezin ghetto, before the arrival of the first transports of deportees. Leo, Chava and Margit were deported to Terezin in 1942. Leo died after a year in the ghetto. Chava and Margit remained in Terezin and thanks to his work... Continue reading

Wedding ring of Grete and Pavel Bader. The ring is engraved with their wedding date: 25 December 1928

The Bader family was deported from the town of Kyjov in the Czech Republic to the Terezin ghetto in January 1943.Grete was sent to work in a factory "essential to the German war effort" which protected her from deportation to the death camps. At the end of 1944, her husband Pavel, fourteen-year-old Jiri (George) and ten-year-old Vera were issued deportation orders to Auschwitz. Grete begged to be allowed to join her family, but her repeated requests were denied. Together the parents decided... Continue reading

Tool for rolling cigarettes that helped Jacob Strich survive the war

Jacob Strich contracted a skin disease while incarcerated in the Lvov ghetto. Using the last of their money, his parents managed to buy him false papers and organize his transfer to a hospital in Warsaw. Jacob parted from his parents, travelled to Warsaw and was hospitalized for several months. After being released from hospital, he lived alternately alone on the streets of Warsaw and with his relatives who lived under an assumed identity outside the ghetto. Rolling cigarettes with a... Continue reading

Bracelet found in the liquidated Lodz ghetto, engraved with depictions of life in the ghetto and the date 30 September 1943

Link bracelet made in the Lodz ghetto engraved with the date 30/9/1943. Each link of the bracelet depicts a scene of daily life in the ghetto – carts loaded with loaves of bread, the steeple of the Catholic church that was in view of the ghetto's wooden bridge, a guard next to his post at the ghetto entrance, and the workers hauling the ghetto sewage cart. Engraved on the central link are the initials GF. The bracelet was found by Shmuel Barash, one of the 800 remaining Jews tasked with... Continue reading

Improvised Grave-Marker for Mosze Jakubson, who Died on 27 July 1942 Aged 17 in the Lodz Ghetto, and was Buried in the Ghetto

Moric-Moritz-Mosze Jakubson contracted typhus in the Lodz ghetto. On his sickbed he wrote in his diary: "I know what I'll do. We'll go to Palestine as we hoped… I'll get well there thanks to the sun, the dry air and Mother's care." But Mosze didn't get better and didn't achieve his dream of immigrating to Eretz Israel; he died on 27 July 1942 and was buried in the cemetery in the ghetto. Two years after his death, a short time before the liquidation of the ghetto, his sister Sonia escaped... Continue reading

Comb that Rola Sochaczewski Received in the Lodz Ghetto in July 1944 as a Gift for her 21st Birthday

For his sister Rola's 21st birthday, Lova Sochaczewski made a comb from an aluminum jug and engraved the date: 13 July 1944. A short time later, with the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto, Rola, her sister Fira and her mother Rivka-Rachel were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. All three survived, were liberated from the Bergen-Belsen camp and immigrated to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine). Continue reading

Cigarette Box that Leon Fajtlowicz Received from his Workers in the Leather Workshop in the Lodz Ghetto

Cigarette box received by Leon Fajtlowicz, the overseer of the leather workshop in the Lodz ghetto, from his workers. The top of the box is decorated with a silver plaque crafted to resemble a Lodz ghetto banknote. The underside of the box is decorated with a plaque crafted to resemble a bread ration card issued to Leon Fajtlowicz. The ration card is dated 4 July 1942, apparently the date the gift was made. Leon and his wife Tzippora remained in the ghetto until its liquidation, and were among... Continue reading

Blanket that wrapped young Aviva Brachfeld when she was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto

Amidst the chaos of the Great Deportation in the Warsaw ghetto in July 1942, four-year-old Aviva was separated from her father and left on her own at the Umschlagplatz. Someone who had been sent to smuggle out a girl her age, wrapped her in a blanket and took her out of the ghetto in a suitcase. When he discovered his mistake, she was moved from place to place until she was reunited with her parents, who arranged for her to be hidden with a Polish family. Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection Donated... Continue reading

The last postcard that the child Sonia Cerny, who was in hiding, received from her mother and her sister who remained in the Kovno Ghetto and were murdered

A small postcard decorated with a dove, symbol of freedom, and inscribed with good wishes by Sonia Cerny’s mother Pola and her sister Nadia. They wrote the postcard while in the Kovno ghetto, and smuggled it out to Sonia, who was being hidden by a Lithuanian woman living outside the ghetto. Jews who worked in forced labor outside the ghetto were the inmates’ link with the outside world. Lithuanian locals would offer to sell food to the Jewish laborers while the bribed German guard... Continue reading

Doll made by Alice Randt, a nurse in the Theresienstadt ghetto deported from Hanover

Two dolls, dressed as a nurse and a Jewish policeman, apparently represent Alice Randt from Hannover and her friend in the Theresienstadt ghetto – Arnold Rubin, a Czech inmate who was sent from there to Auschwitz and murdered. The circumstances under which the dolls were made are unknown. We know Alice’s fate from her memoirs, titled “Die Schleuse” (the name of the area in the ghetto where new inmates were brought). Her memoirs were donated to Yad Vashem in the 1950s along with the... Continue reading

Small Mementos from the Lodz Ghetto

The creating of small mementos that were engraved with depictions of life in the Lodz ghetto, was one of the ways in which those enclosed within the ghetto were able to express some sense of freedom. The items are a testament to the high degree of technical ability and artistic talent of their creators. The subjects depicted on the engraved metal items can be found in drawings and photographs that document life in the Lodz ghetto. A number of artifacts of this kind from the Lodz ghetto are... Continue reading

A decorated album that was made in the Theresienstadt Ghetto by artist, Max Placek, as a bar-mitzvah present for Jiri Bader who was imprisoned in the ghetto with his family

Jiri (Georg) Bader was born in April, 1930 in Kyjov, Czechoslovakia to Pavel & Grete Bader. Four years later his sister Vera was born. The Bader family led a traditional Jewish lifestyle and owned a store that enabled them to live comfortably. In January 1943, just two months before Jiri’s Bar Mitzva, the Bader family was deported to Theresienstadt along with the rest of the Jews of Kyjov. In light of this upheaval in their lives, it was impossible to celebrate Jiri’s Bar Mitzva on... Continue reading

Pocket watch on which Yeshayahu Markowitz from Transylvania, pasted the photographs of his children

Following the death of his wife Feiga, Yeshayahu Markovitz was left to raise their seven children. He married Esther, and they had five more children. The family, which lived in Szilágysomlyó, in the area of Transylvania that was annexed to Hungary in 1940, followed a traditional religious way of life. Yeshayahu carried a special pocket watch that enabled him to see all of his family each time he checked the time. In the center are photographs of Yeshayahu and Esther, and the twelve... Continue reading

The braids of Lili Hirsch, who was deported with her family to Auschwitz and murdered

When the decree was issued ordering all the Jews of Targu Mures, Transylvania, to leave their homes and relocate to the ghetto, Shaul and Rivka Hirsch prepared their children, 14-year-old Yitzhak and 12-year-old Lili, for the move. Rivka wanted to cut off Lili’s long braids, knowing that conditions in the ghetto would make hair-care impossible, but Lili refused to part with her long tresses. As a result of her mother’s pleas, and the promise that the braids would be safeguarded along with... Continue reading

One of ten metal containers in which the “Oneg Shabbat” Archive was hidden

With the onset of the German occupation, Dr. Emmanuel Ringelblum, a historian and public figure, realized that the Jews were being faced with an unprecedented reality and he immediately began to record events and gather documentary material. The initiator of this documentation project, Dr. Ringelblum undertook to create an ongoing chronicle, in which he wrote about different topics pertaining to Jewish life under Nazi occupation in Poland, principally in Warsaw. The material that made up... Continue reading