Silver souvenir spoon with the Bonn coat of arms with a fitted box owned by a young German Jewish prewar emigre
Extent and Medium
a: Height: 3.750 inches (9.525 cm) | Width: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm) | Depth: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm)
b: Height: 4.500 inches (11.43 cm) | Width: 0.750 inches (1.905 cm) | Depth: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm)
Creator(s)
- Victor Mobius (Jeweler)
- Ruth Grossmann (Subject)
Biographical History
Rosa Dublon was born on March 15, 1927, in Wittlich, Germany, to Jewish parents, Siegfried and Erna Wolf Dublon. Rosa had a sister, Herta, born on November 9, 1931, in Wittlich. Her father, Siegfried, was born on February 17, 1902, in Wittlich, to Michel and Frieda Herz Dublon. Her mother, Erna, was born on October 23, 1907, in Mertloch, Germany. Her father was Samuel Wolf. Erna had three siblings: Jakob, born circa 1901; Helen (1902-2000); and Thekla, born circa 1905. Siegfried and Erna married in approximately 1925 and lived in Wittlich, where Siegfried was a cattle trader. By 1930, Erna's sister Helen, her husband, Otto Lederer, and their children, Robert and Elain, had left for the United States. At some point, Siegfried and Erna moved to Cologne. The couple divorced, and Erna and her daughters moved to Mertloch, where Erna’s family resided. In January 1933, Hitler came to power and, by summer, Germany was ruled by a Nazi dictatorship which actively persecuted Jews. Erna's sister Helen sponsored US immigration visas for the family. On November 26, 1936, Erna, Rosa, and Herta left Germany aboard the SS New York, arriving on December 4. They lived with Helen and her family in Queens, New York. Erna worked as a seamstress. Rosa and Herta Americanized their names to Ruth and Joan. Helen also sponsored visas for her brother, Jakob and his wife Carolina, who arrived in New York in July 1938 aboard the SS Ile De France. Helen's husband Otto sponsored the applications of the remaining Wolf family members. On October 27, 1939, Samuel, Thekla, her husband Karl Daniel, and their children Guenther and Heinz, sailed from Hamburg on the SS President Harding, arriving in New York on November 6. They also lived with Helen and Otto in Queens. After the war ended in May 1945, they eventually learned that the family remaining in Germany did not survive. Ruth's father Siegfried was living in Frankfurt at the end of 1937. At some point, he moved to Paris, France. In September 1939, his German nationality was annulled by the Nazi regime and he perished at an unknown date. Ruth’s paternal grandmother Frieda died on January 31, 1940, and her grandfather Michel on April 13, 1940, both of natural causes. Ruth married Elliot A. (Buddy) Grossmann on October 26, 1947. Buddy was a native of Brooklyn, born on January 7, 1924. He served in the US Army Air Corps during World War II. Ruth and Buddy had two children. Ruth’s sister Joan married and settled in Connecticut. Ruth’s mother, Erna, remarried. Erna, age 77, died on December 3, 1984, in Miami Beach, Florida. Joan, age 61, died on October 30, 1993, in Stamford, Connecticut. Buddy, age 71, died on May 3, 1995, in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Archival History
The spoon with box were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Ruth Dublon Grossmann.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ruth Dublon Grossmann
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
Small souvenir spoon with a painted coat of arms and fitted box owned by Rosa Dublon, who in 1936, at the age of 9, left Germany with her mother Erna and five year old sister Herta for the United States. After 1933, the Nazi dictatorship that now governed Germany increasingly persecuted Jewish residents. Rosa's parents Erna and Siegfried divorced in the mid-1930s and Erna and the girls moved to her hometown of Mertloch. Erna's sister Helen Lederer had lived in the United States since at least 1930. She sponsored their 1936 emigration to New York to live with her in Queens. Helen also sponsored the emigration of her father, Samuel Wolf, and siblings, Jakob Wolf and Thekla Daniel, and their families. Ruth's father Siegfried is assumed to have perished in the Holocaust.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
a. Small, silver spoon with an elongated oval bowl with a welded handle that curves up slightly in the the center. The neck is arched and decorated with an embossed dot and line pattern which is repeated toward the handle tip. The handle tip is flat and tapers to form a keystone. The handle face has a painted enamel inlay of the Bonn coat of arms: a shield with a black cross on a white field and a red lion on a blue field, with a white oval with black text below and 3 blue rectangles above. There are gold traces on the handle suggestive of vermeil. There is a silvermark on the reverse. b. Small, narrow, rectangular, white cardboard box lid and base covered in textured, treated, white paper. The short, lift off lid has a gold printed border around the top and bottom rims; store information is printed on the top. A section of pink cotton sits inside the base. There is handwritten text on the reserve of the base.
b. box base, handwritten, cursive, pencil : mein [?] [?] / vou silver Lous de curio
Subjects
- Jewish refugees--United States--Biography.
- Germany--Emigration and immigration--Biography.
- United States--Emigration and immigration--Biography.
- Refugee children--United States--Biography.
- Jews--Germany--Biography.
Genre
- Household Utensils
- Object