William Begell collection

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• irn514675
• English
• overall: Height: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) | Width: 5.125 inches (13.018 cm) | Depth: 0.125 inches (0.318 cm)
• Updated 7 months ago

Red leather wallet used by Ferdinand Beigel, a Jewish Polish Army officer in Vilna, Poland (Vilnius, Lithuania). After Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, Ferdinand remained in Vilna to conduct regimental business. Vilna was soon under Soviet control and the family’s possessions were confiscated. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Vilna and by September, Ferdinand, wife Liza, and son Wilhelm were forcibly relocated to the Jewish ghetto. Ferdinand joined the ghetto police and was in charge of the ghetto prison. On September 4, 1943, the Germans ordered the ghetto li...

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• irn521705
• English
• 1930-1947
• folder 1
• Updated 7 months ago

The William Begell papers consist of a military ID certificate, death announcements, and forty-nine photographs relating to the experiences of William Begell (born Wilhelm Beigel) and his family, namely his father Ferdinand Beigel, before and during the Holocaust. There are eighteen photographs in the collection that depict the donor and his family’s pre-war experiences, including photos of William’s parents and some uncles and aunts, eleven photographs taken in the Vilna ghetto, eleven post-war photographs of the donor in Gailingen, six photos of the Marine Marlin and some of its passenger...