Harry and Ruth Krautwirth Meyerowitz collection

Identifier: irn72178
Language of Description: English
Level of Description: Collection
Source: EHRI Partner

Web Source

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn72178

Acquisition

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by Ruth Krautwirth Meyerowitz.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of a belt and two handkerchiefs relating to the experiences of Ruth Krautwirth, who was an inmate of Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, and Malchow concentration camps during the Holocaust, and a Nazi armband and SA uniform shirt relating to the experiences of Harry Meyerowitz, a soldier in the United States Army in Europe during World War II.

Genre

Collection

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.

Child Items

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Language of Description
1. English (7)
Country
1. United States (7)
Holding Institution
1. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (7)

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Displaying items 1 to 7 of 7

Blue felt belt with appliqued flowers found by a German Jewish teenage inmate at Auschwitz
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn813
- English
- overall: Height: 28.375 inches (72.073 cm) | Width: 2.500 inches (6.35 cm) | Depth: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm)
- Updated 7 months ago
Floral appliqué belt issued or found by 14 year old Ruth Krautwirth upon her April 1943 arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, when her clothes were taken and she was given filthy, ill-fitting civilian clothing to wear. As Ruth recalled: "We endured at the edge of the crematoria. One day, very early on, I found a felt belt. A happy row of flowers on a blue field. Obviously the cheerful work of a child. ...I used the belt to cinch the waistline of my striped prison uniform. I bloused the top to hide the belt or I would have risked a beating. The button closing is long gone. Somewh...
Brown and yellow striped silk handkerchief found by a German Jewish teenage inmate at Birkenau
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn814
- English
- overall: Height: 10.875 inches (27.623 cm) | Width: 10.500 inches (26.67 cm)
- Updated 7 months ago
Brown silk handkerchief with yellow lines found by 14 year old Ruth Krautwirth in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she was held from April 1943 to November 1944. Ruth worked in the Kanada unit, sorting the inmates discarded belongings. It is likely that she found the kerchief there. She kept the handkerchief "as a reminder that once there was a world without gassings, without filthy latrines and flea infested straw cots, without electrically charged wire fences." Ruth, her parents Hanna and Isak, and brother Zev were deported from Frankfurt, Germany, to Birkenau in April 1943. R...
Colorful plaid handkerchief found by a German Jewish teenage inmate at Birkenau
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn815
- English
- overall: Height: 11.125 inches (28.258 cm) | Width: 10.625 inches (26.988 cm)
- Updated 7 months ago
Orange, pink, yellow, and green plaid handkerchief found by 14 year old Ruth Krautwirth in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she was held from April 1943 to November 1944. Ruth worked in the Kanada unit, sorting the inmates discarded belongings. It is likely that she found the kerchief there. She kept the handkerchief as a reminder "that once there was a world without gassings, without filthy latrines and flea infested straw cots, without electrically charged wire fences." Ruth, her parents Hanna and Isak, and brother Zev were deported from Frankfurt, Germany, to Birkenau in Apri...
Hitler Youth armband with a swastika acquired by a US soldier
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn816
- English
- overall: Height: 4.250 inches (10.795 cm) | Width: 8.250 inches (20.955 cm)
- Updated 7 months ago
Hitler Youth armband acquired by Harry Meyerowitz, a soldier in the US Army in Europe from 1944-45. The Hitler Youth was founded by the Nazi Party to shape the beliefs and actions of German youth to conform to national socialist ideology. It was a pathway for service in the armed forces or, later, in the SS. In 1936, membership in Nazi youth groups became mandatory for those age ten to seventeen. Harry deployed to Europe in 1944. His unit entered Ohrdruf concentration camp on April 6, 1945, two days after its liberation by US troops. This was the first camp liberated by American forces. Rut...
SA brown uniform shirt with Rottenfuhrer insignia acquired by a US soldier
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn817
- English
- overall: Height: 21.000 inches (53.34 cm) | Width: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm)
- Updated 7 months ago
SA [Sturmabteilung] brown uniform shirt with swastika armband brought back from the war by Harry Meyerowitz, a soldier in the US Army in Europe from 1944-1945. It has the official tag of the RZM, the National Equipment Quartermaster. The collar insignia indicates a rank of SA - Rottenfuhrer, a Troop leader for a paramilitary squad of 5-7 men. The green collar tab number 133, was for Gruppe Sachsen, which was located in Saxony, Germany, from 1933 until May 1945. The SA was a Nazi paramilitary organization. Known as Brownshirts or Storm Troopers, the SA protected Nazi leaders, marched in Nazi...
Book
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn818
- English
- 1968
- Updated 7 months ago
Short history on the persecution of Jews in Denmark and Norway, and the Danish underground refugee service.
Exhibition catalog
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn819
- English
- 1978
- Updated 7 months ago

Harry and Ruth Krautwirth Meyerowitz collection

Child Items

Blue felt belt with appliqued flowers found by a German Jewish teenage inmate at Auschwitz

Brown and yellow striped silk handkerchief found by a German Jewish teenage inmate at Birkenau

Colorful plaid handkerchief found by a German Jewish teenage inmate at Birkenau

Hitler Youth armband with a swastika acquired by a US soldier

SA brown uniform shirt with Rottenfuhrer insignia acquired by a US soldier

Book

Exhibition catalog