Dinner napkin stitched with Edith Hamberg's initials

Edith Hamberg (later Edith Hamberg Tarcov, 1919-1990) was born on 23 October 1919 in Hannover, Germany to Sally (1887-1942?) and Minna (née Braunsberg, 1889-1943?) Hamberg. She had one sister, Margot (later Margot Ward, b.1924). Her father was a World War I veteran. Prior to her emigration from Germany, Edith was an active Zionist and worked at Jewish orphanages in Hannover and Kassel. She emigrated from Germany in 1939, first to England, and then to the United States in 1940, sponsored by her American relative Milton Mayer. She settled in Chicago. Her sister Margot went on a kindertransport to England the same year. She married a German refugee and remained there. Edith was introduced to Oscar Tarcov (d. 1963) by the writer Saul Bellow, and they married in 1942. Edith and Milton unsuccessfully tried to help her parents emigrate and lost all contact with them by late 1941. Sally and Minna were deported to Riga, Latvia on 15 December 1941. Sally was deported to the Salaspils concentration camp where he likely perished in 1942. Minna perished in 1943 or 1944, likely in Riga or the Stutthof concentration camp. Edith and Oscar both had successful careers as writers. They had two children, Nathan and Miriam.

The napkin was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2022 by Miriam Tarcov, daughter of Edith Hamberg Tarcov.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Miriam Tarcov