Handmade white armband stamped for medical personnel worn by an inmate in Theresienstadt
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 2.625 inches (6.668 cm) | Width: 4.875 inches (12.383 cm)
Archival History
The armband was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
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
Handmade white cloth armband presumably worn by an inmate at Theresienstadt ghetto/labor camp. It has a medical stamp and KZ. L Terezin handwritten on the center. The camp was run by the German SS but a Jewish Council of Elders organized municipal services, such as a health care system run by imprisoned doctors and nurses. Theresienstadt existed from November 24, 1941, until May 9, 1945, in the German controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in the former Czechoslovakia. Terezin operated as a transit camp and and ghetto/labor camp for Jews deported from the Greater German Reich. It was expected that many would die due to the poor conditions. Approximately 140,000 Jews were transported to Terezin: 90,000 were deported to almost certain death in the east beginning in early 1942. Around 33,000 prisoners died in Theresienstadt. The International Red Cross took over administration of the camp on May 2, 1945. The German commandant and guards fled on May 5 and 6 as the Soviet Army neared the camp.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Rectangular, discolored and slightly stained, white cloth armband double stitched together at the short ends. It has a narrow red border made from a separate folded strip of red and white striped cloth sewn to the interior. Czech text is hand printed across the front center in purple ink. A faded, circular stamp with Czech text and a caduceus, a medical symbol of a snake wrapped around a pole, is stamped right of center. A section of the border and band are separated at the top.
Inscription: front, handwritten, purple ink : Kz. L. / TEREZIN front, around inner border of seal, stamped, green ink : SAMOSPRAVA BÝV. GHETA TEREZINA / ZDRAVOTNICTVI [LOCAL GOVERNMENT THERESIENSTADT / HEALTHCARE]
Subjects
- Concentration camp inmates--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Czechoslovakia.
- World War, 1939-1945--Medical care--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
- Medical personnel--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
- Terezin (Ustecky kraj, Czech Republic)--History.
Genre
- Object
- Identifying Artifacts