Concentration camp uniform jacket with badge worn by a Lithuanian Jewish inmate
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 24.250 inches (61.595 cm) | Width: 14.500 inches (36.83 cm)
Creator(s)
- George J. Fine (Subject)
Biographical History
Getzel Jurgis Fingerhut (George Fine) was born on December 24, 1922, in Siauliai, Lithuania. His father, Josef, b. 1893, was a certified locksmith, as well as a professional skater and ballroom dancer, who had served in the German Navy on a mine sweeper during World War I (1914-1918). His mother, Miriam Geselsohn, owned a delicatessen. He had one brother, Eliahu, born in August 1927. George was enrolled at Polytechnic Engineering College in Kovno, Lithuania, during the period from June 1940-May 1941 when Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union. When Germany declared war on the USSR and invaded Lithuania in June 1941, George returned to join his family. The Lithuanians had carried out violent riots against the Jewish population before and after the German invasion. Now they joined with the Germans Einsatzgruppen [mobile killing squads] in murdering thousands of Jews. In August 1941, George's family was forced into the Siauliai ghetto, which was transformed into a concentration camp in September 1943. George was sent to the Linkaiciai labor camp, where he unloaded ammunition for the Wehrmacht. Later he was transferred to Baciunai labor camp to work mining peat for fuel the electric power plant. In early 1944, he worked in the outskirts of Siauliai at Heeres-Kraftfahr-Park 562, a Wehrmacht military vehicle repair depot. On July 21, 1944, the Germans deported the remaining Jews from the ghetto to Stutthof concentration camp. George’s father made sure his two sons stayed together, and in early August 1944, the three of them were transferred to Kaufering Camp 10, in Utting near Dachau, where George worked repairing trains and operating the diesel shovel. His paternal uncle, Lejbl, was in the same group. Most of the otehr inmates were also from George's home town, Siauliai. In April 1945, the prisoners were forced on a death march as the camp was evacuated. They were used as a shield to protect the German guards from Allied bombing. The United States Army liberated them on April 30, 1945, near Wolfranhausen, near Munich, Germany. His mother had died during the evacuation of Stutthof. George, his father, brother, and uncle were settled in the Feldafing displaced persons camp. George eventually returned to school at Polytechnic Engineering College in Munich. His brother, Eliahu, attended dental school. In 1947, Josef remarried a woman he knew before the war, and emigrated to Montreal, Canada. In April 1949, George left from Bremerhaven for Montreal, aboard the SS Samaria. He married Sari Marmor in 1951. Sari, originally from Romania, was a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, a Hasag slave labor camp, as well as a death march. Josef passed away, age 81, in 1974.
Archival History
The concentration camp jacket was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998 by George J. Fine.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of George J. Fine
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
Striped concentration camp uniform jacket issued to Getzel Fingerhut, 22, as a replacement for his oil slicked jacket, while interned in Kaufering X slave labor camp, known as Dachau 10, from August 1944 to April 1945. Getzel was an oiler for a diesel shovel and when his jacket got covered in grease and oil ca. November, his German boss requested this one for him. He wore this jacket for 5 or 6 months, over his oily jacket, to keep warm. He made the number patch 92041, a copy of the one on his old jacket, because he would be punished if he had no identifying badge. There was only one German worker, so Getzel also operated the shovel and worked 2-3 shifts at a time. Most of the prisoners were Lithuanian Jews from Getzel's home town, Siauliai, in German occupied Lithuania. In August 1941, Getzel and his family were interned in Siauliai ghetto. Getzel was in a series of forced labor camps until July 1944, when the ghetto residents were deported to Stutthof. Getzel, father Josef, and brother Eliahu were then transferred to Kaufering 10. The camp was evacuated by death march in April 1945. The prisoners were used by the German guards as shields against Allied bombers. They were liberated by US troops on April 30, near Wolfranhausen, and re-settled in Feldafing displaced persons camp.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Faded blue and offwhite vertically striped, lighter weight cotton jacket, hip length, with long sleeves and a pointed collar with a metal hook and eye closure. The front opening has 6 black plastic buttons on the left and 6 hand finished buttonholes on the right. There is rectangular stain and a small hole on the left breast, possibly where a patch used to be. There is a welt patch pocket with blue cloth edge trim, with stripes aligned to the jacket, on each front side at the hips. A cloth hanging loop is sewn inside the back neck. The hems and seams are machine finished with black thread. A handmade 1.250 inch red inverted triangle cloth patch with a worn white cloth bar across the top with faded handwritten text is sewn to the upper right chest. The patch is wrapped around and sewn over a hard base. There is discolored rectangle on the left breast, perhaps where a patch was attached. The cloth is stained.
front, on patch, hand printed, black ink : K.L. / Dachau 92041
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors--Canada--Biography.
- Concentration camp inmates--Germany--Dachau--Biography.
- Death marches--Germany--Biography.
- Jews--Persecutions--Lithuania--Siauliai--Biography.
- Slave labor--Germany--Biography.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Lithuania--Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Lithuania--Personal narratives, Jewish.
Genre
- Clothing and Dress
- Object