Tall white wooden wardrobe used at Dzierzazna concentration camp for children
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 76.750 inches (194.945 cm) | Width: 31.500 inches (80.01 cm) | Depth: 22.375 inches (56.833 cm)
Archival History
The wardrobe was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
White upright storage cabinet used to store goods at Dzierzazna prison camp for Polish children in a district of Łódź, (Litzmannstadt), Poland, circa March 1943 - July 1944. The prefabricated wardrobe was manufactured in Germany and put together using assembly instructions. Dzierzazna opened on January 12, 1943, as a subcamp of the Polish Juveniles Camp of the Security Police. The SS had a Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) program that urged SS and Wehrmacht soldiers to have at least four children, in or out of wedlock, to grow an elite Nazi Aryan population. By 1939, non-Aryan mothers were acceptable. In eastern occupied countries, children who appeared to meet Nazi racial criteria, such as blond hair and blue eyes, were taken, often forcibly, from their families. After another selection, some were sent to Germany to be indoctrinated; others were sent to camps such as Dzierzazna. Łódź Ghetto was liquidated in summer 1944. The camp closed July 31, its inmates sent to extermination or concentration camps.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Tall, prefabricated, white painted wooden cabinet with 2 full height front doors attached by 3 hinges, with a white painted metal latch. There are 4 wooden feet on the bottom. The interior has a center partition making 2 full height compartments. The left side has a full depth shelf. The right has a half depth shelf with a tall back edge. Both compartments have wooden slats nailed to the sides for additional shelves and a wooden plate with a semicircular cutout near the top to insert a pole. The back has 4 circular holes: 1 near the top and 3 near the bottom, covered with perforated metal plates for venting, except for 1 on the left, which has a solid metal plate. There are 2 metal hooks at the top edge of each compartment. A paper assembly sheet is adhered to the back of the left door. It lists the components pieces, with an illustration of how to construct the cabinet. Numbers stamped on the interior correspond with those in the instructions.
interior, paper adhered to left door, black ink : Lösbare Bauteile des Schrankes. [Detachable components of the cabinet]
Subjects
- World War (1939-1945)--Poland--Łódź.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Łódź.
- Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945.
- Concentration camps--Poland--Łódź.
- Orphanages--Poland--Łódź.
Genre
- Object
- Furnishings and Furniture