Prisoner identification tag stamped 85375 with leather band worn by a Polish Jewish inmate in several concentration camps

Mojzesz (Moses) Majerczyk (later Myers) was born on July 6, 1916, in Miechow, Poland, to Mendel and Rachla Ginsberg Majerczyk. Mojzesz had one younger sister. He was a textile worker and knitter. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. The German occupation authorities enacted policies aimed at persecuting and isolating Polish Jews. In March 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in the southern area of Krakow. In January 1942, Mojzesz was forced into the Krakow ghetto. In September 1942, he was among the first prisoners transported to Płaszów forced-labor camp, and was part of the labor crew that built those facilities. The Soviet Army was approaching Płaszów in the summer of 1944, and the SS that ran the camp deported prisoners to other camps. On August 8, 1944, Mojzesz was transported to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he received a prisoner identification number, 85375. Later that month, he was transferred to Melk forced-labor camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen. The Soviet Army advanced on the region in April 1945, and the SS at Melk transported prisoners to other Mauthausen subcamps. Mojzesz was transported to Ebensee concentration camp. On May 4 and 5, 1945, the US Army liberated the prisoners at Ebensee. Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. By January 25, 1946, Moses was at Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria. He met Ludwika (Luisa) Finder at the camp and they married on May 20, 1946. Ludwika was born on April 20, 1918, in Krakow, Poland, to Haskel and Ettel Jetti Lustgarten Finder. She had an older sister, Helene, and a younger brother, Aleksander. In March 1941, Ludwika was forced from her family home and taken to the Krakow ghetto, which had just been established. In mid-March 1943, the SS was preparing to liquidate the ghetto, and Ludwika was transported to Płaszów. The Soviet Army was approaching Płaszów in the summer of 1944, and the SS deported the prisoners to other camps. Ludwika was among a group of one hundred Jewish Polish women selected for a labor detachment to the newly established Gundelsdorf labor camp, a subcamp of Flossenbürg. On August 6, 1944, the detachment arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where Ludwika and the other women were processed, then sent to Gundelsdorf in Germany, arriving on September 15, 1944. Ludwika’s detachment built the barracks at the camp and then sewed uniforms for the Wehrmacht. In February 1945, the group was split and Ludwika was sent on a forced march. In April 1945, her column of prisoners was liberated. She did not want to return to Krakow, and went to Salzburg displaced persons camp in Austria. Ludwika left in November 1945, and was at Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria, by January 25, 1946. She later learned that her brother Aleksander had survived. On May 10, 1949, Moses and Ludwika (Lucy) left Linz and traveled to Bremerhaven, Germany. With the assistance of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they boarded the S.S. Marine Flasher on May 18, and sailed to the United States. The couple settled in Brooklyn, New York, and changed their last name to Myers. In approximately 1950, their daughter was born. Moses became a naturalized citizen in 1954, and Ludwika in 1955. Moses, age 85, died on February 28, 2002, in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

The identification tag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Ettie Shapiro, the daughter of Ludwika and Moses Myers.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ettie Shapiro