Cloth square cut from a blue and gray striped concentration camp inmate uniform
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 5.250 inches (13.335 cm) | Width: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm)
Creator(s)
- Ann West (Subject)
Biographical History
Anny Neumann (later Ann West) was born in 1920 in Leipzig, Germany, to Leo and Johanna Neumann. She and her boyfriend Heinz Rosenhain joined the Hachshara in Ellguth (Oberschlesien), Gut Winkel, near Berlin, and finally Neuendorf bei Fürstenwalde, where she also worked at a German military laundry. In April 1943, Anny and Heinz, now her husband, were deported with their friends to Auschwitz concentration camp in German occupied Poland. Anny was assigned to the camp police. Heinz, age 32, was sent to Ebensee slave labor camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen) where he died just before liberation in May 1945. Anny was sent on a death march from Auschwitz to Malchow, a subcamp of Ravensbrück, in January 1945. She escaped during the evacuation from Malchow in May 1945. She joined her sisters Emmy Pomper and Sabina Heliczer in the United States in 1946. Her mother survived Theresienstadt and immigrated to the United States in 1947. Anny later married Czech Holocaust survivor Robert West.
Archival History
The cloth was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by Ann West.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ann West
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
The blue and gray-striped cloth was cut from an inmate's uniform at Auschwitz concentration camp
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Blue and gray striped fabric from an inmate's uniform.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Concentration camp inmates--Uniforms.
Genre
- Clothing and Dress
- Object