Aluminum ring with a letter and prisoner number owned by a Yugoslav political prisoner

Identifier
irn44120
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2011.174.4
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

overall: Height: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm) | Width: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm) | Depth: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm) | Diameter: 0.900 inches (2.286 cm)

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Ivan (Johann) Bolé was born on February 9, 1916, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Catholic parents, Ivan and Danica Strekelj Bole. The family moved to Laibach, Yugoslavia (Ljubljana, Slovenia). Danica died on November 14, 1929, in Laibach. Ivan completed five years of university education. He received his diploma from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law, in January 1941 and became an attorney. He spoke Czech, Slovenian, German, Italian, French, and Serbo-Croatian. On April 6, 1941, the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria, invaded and divided Yugoslavia. Laibach was in the area occupied and annexed by Italy. Ivan went to Venice with the Slovenian Red Cross. On September 19, 1944, he was caught attempting to smuggle a radio transmitter across the border and was arrested by the German SS security force in Trieste. Ivan was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, arriving on November 19. He was designated a political prisoner, assigned prisoner number 67186, and housed in Block 17. He was assigned to work commando A6 in Wanz-leben am See. Buchenwald was liberated on April 11, 1945, by American forces. The war ended when Germany surrendered on May 7. In June 1945, Ivan was repatriated from Mittenwald displaced person camp to a dp camp in Rome, Italy. In 1946, he was employed by the Allied Military Government as a school director in the Gorizia region of Italy, near the Slovenian border. In fall 1948, Ivan was living in Bagnoli dp camp near Naples, run by the IRO [International Refugee Organization.] On January 16, 1950, Ivan left for the United States, sailing from Bremerhaven, Germany, on the General JH McRae, arriving in New York on January 26. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1955 and changed his name to John. He went on to have a successful career in international banking. He married Martina, nee Kosuchowski, on May 4, 1957, and they had a son, Michael, and a daughter, Lorraine. John, age 61, died in January 1978 in New York.

Archival History

The ring was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011 by Lorraine DeMaio, the daughter of John Bole.

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lorraine DeMaio

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

Engraved aluminum ring that belonged to 29 year old Ivan (Johann) Bole, who was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp from November 1944 - April 1945. It is engraved with a J (Jugoslawisch) and an inverted triangle, the symbols Ivan was labelled with to identify him as a Yugoslavian political prisoner. Ivan, a Catholic, was a lawyer in Laibach, Yugoslavia (Ljubljana, Slovenia) when the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, invaded in April 1941. Laibach was annexed by Italy. Ivan went to Venice with the Slovenian Red Cross. In September 1944, he was arrested by the German SS for smuggling a radio transmitter into Trieste. In November, Ivan was sent to Buchenwald in Germany and assigned prisoner number 67186. He was assigned to work commando A6 in Wanz-leben am See. The camp was liberated on April 11, 1945, by US troops. Germany surrendered on May 7. Ivan lived as a displaced person in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and emigrated to America in 1950.

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Reproduction

No restrictions on use

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Pressed aluminum finger ring with a flat rectangular face with an engraved inverted triangle with a letter J above a rectangle with numbers. It has ribbed shoulders and 2 engraved lines on each side of the band which is wide at the top and narrows to the bottom. The band is uneven and scratched.

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.