Bedcover used by a Jewish girl in a displaced persons camp

Identifier
irn513687
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2003.193.5
Level of Description
Item
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

overall: Height: 53.625 inches (136.208 cm) | Width: 25.875 inches (65.723 cm)

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Chana Minuskin (later Helen Matlow) was born on June 4, 1924, in Zdzieciol, Poland (Dziatlava, Belarus), to a Jewish couple, Aaron and Dwora Medwecki Minuskin (later Dora Haidukowski). Aaron, a taxi driver, was born in 1898, in Zdzieciol. Dwora, a housewife and seamstress, was born on May 1, 1901, in Zdzieciol, to Abraham and Zlata Raswacki Medwecki. In 1923, Aaron and Dwora married. Chana had one brother, Moshe (later Michael), born on March 3, 1926. Of the total population of Zdzieciol, 75 percent were Jewish, approximately 3,500 people. The town was called Zhetl in Yiddish. Chana attended a local Jewish school and knew Yiddish and Hebrew. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. On September 17, Germany handed the eastern half of Poland over to Soviet forces in compliance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The agreement, in which Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland, had been signed on August 23, 1939. Fifteen year old Chana began attending a Soviet school. Following the invasion, many Jewish refugees from western and central Poland arrived in Zdzieciol, raising the population by more than 1,000. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and occupied eastern Poland. On June 30, German troops entered Zdzieciol. On July 14, the local military commandant ordered Jews to wear a yellow Star of David badge on the front and back of their clothing at all times. On July 23, 120 members of the Jewish intelligentsia were taken from town to serve as forced laborers. Two days later, the remaining Jews discovered the group had been taken to a forest and killed. In December, likely as part of a group of 400 men selected to construct an aerodrome, Moshe, a carpenter, was transferred nearby to a forced labor camp in Dworzec (Dvarėts (Hrodzenskaia voblasts', Belarus).) In February 1942, German authorities ordered all Jews in Zdzieciol to leave their homes and move into a partially enclosed ghetto. Special passes were required to leave the ghetto and forced laborers entered and exited under guard. The Germans and their collaborators carried out selections in April and August, selecting thousands of Jews to be shot and buried in mass graves. Chana’s father, Aaron, was killed, likely during one of the selections when healthy workers were pulled aside and shot. In August, Chana and her mother, Dwora, were transferred to Dworzec to serve as civilian forced laborers at the aerodrome. In December, Chana, Dwora, and Moshe escaped from Dworzec. They joined other escaped Jews hiding in the Lipichanski forest, which served as a base of operations for several groups of Jewish partisans and Soviet resistance fighters. In July 1944, the Soviet Army advanced on the region and liberated all those Jews in the forest and the neighboring towns, ghettos and camps. In August, Chana, Dwora, and Moshe returned to Zdzieciol, where Dwora married Hersh Haidukowski (1889 - ?), one of approximately 370 Jewish survivors from their town. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. In 1945, Chana married Josef Matlowsky, a survivor that had escaped from Radun and Lida ghettos in Poland, before becoming a partisan and Soviet Army soldier following liberation in summer 1944. The couple went to Łódź, Poland. Abraham and Zlata Medwecki, Helen’s maternal grandparents, aunt, and cousin are presumed to have perished during the Holocaust. In May 1946, Josef and Chana went to Funk-Kaserne, a displaced persons camp in the American controlled zone near Munich, Germany. In January 1947, they went to Eggenfelden displaced persons camp. Chana’s mother, brother, and step-father went to Föhrenwald displaced persons camp. On January 22, 1948, Chana and Josef’s daughter, Fruma (Fran), was born in Eggenfelden. On May 29, 1949, Chana, Josef, and Fruma sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany, on the USAT General Holbrook, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 8. The family boarded a train to Ohio, settled in Cleveland, and changed their names to Helen, Joseph, and Fran Matlow. On December 13, Dwora, Hersh, and Moshe sailed from Bremerhaven, to New York City, New York, on the USAT General Blatchford. Dwora and Moshe changed their names to Dora and Michael. In May 1952, Helen and Joseph’s son, Aaron, was born. Helen’s mother, Dora, and brother, Michael, passed away. Joseph died on October 30, 2015, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Helen, 94, died in May 2017, in Beachwood, Ohio.

Archival History

The bed cover was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by Helen and Joseph Matlow.

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Helen and Joseph Matlow

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

Ruffled bedcover with straps owned by Chana Matlowsky (later Helen Matlow) and used by her daughter, Fruma (later Fran Matlow), as a baby in Eggenfelden displaced persons camp in Germany, from 1948 to 1949. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and gave the Soviet Union the eastern half, where Chana, her parents, Aaron and Dwora, her brother, Moshe, and their extended family lived in Zdzieciol (Dziatlava, Belarus). In summer 1941, Germany invaded eastern Poland. In December, Chana’s brother, Moshe, was sent to work in a forced labor camp in Dworzec (Dvarėts (Hrodzenskaia voblasts', Belarus).) In February 1942, German authorities in Zdzieciol ordered all Jews to move into a partially enclosed ghetto. Chana’s father was killed by the authorities, likely during a selection. In August, Chana and her mother, Dwora, were sent to Dworzec, as forced laborers. In December, Chana, Dwora, and Moshe escaped and hid in the nearby Lipichanski forest, which served as a base of operations for several groups of Jewish partisans. In August 1944, Chana, Dwora, and Moshe returned to Zdzieciol after being liberated by the Soviet Army. Dwora married Hersh Haidukowski, a survivor from Zdzieciol, and in 1945, Chana married Josef Matlowsky (later Joseph Matlow), a survivor from Lida, Poland (Belarus). On January 22, 1948, Fruma, was born to Chana and Josef Matlowsky, while they were living at Eggenfelden DP camp. In 1949, the family immigrated to the United States. Helen’s maternal grandparents, aunt, and cousin are presumed to have perished during the Holocaust.

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Reproduction

No restrictions on use

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Rectangular white linen bedcover with tie down straps and a rounded, ruffled top. The cover is formed from a piece of cloth folded in half lengthwise and sewn closed along the top and 1 long edge. A wide length of selvedge is sewn into the top seam and gathered into a ruffle with a basting stitch. Four approximately 25.500 inch long, hemmed cloth straps with pointed ends are sewn to the long edges, 2 per side, just below the ruffle ends. At the bottom is a reinforced button placket closure with 3 evenly spaced, circular, clear plastic buttons sewn on the front. The back is longer and there are 3 finished buttonholes along the excess flap of cloth, which is folded over the open bottom edge to line up with the buttons. The flap ends are sewn closed. The hems and seams are machine finished with white thread.

People

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.