Deaf-mute sports team medal awarded to a German Jewish athlete

Esther Feld was born on December 22, 1940, in Paris, France, to Max and Raisa (Rose) Steinberg Feld. Max, born on January 6, 1915, in Berlin, Germany, and Raisa, born on April 1, 1917, in Kiev, Russia (Ukraine), had met as students at the Israelite School for the Deaf in Berlin, Germany. Raisa had emigrated with her family from Germany to Paris in 1938. Max joined her there and they married in December 1939. After Paris fell to the Germans on June 14, 1940, anti-Jewish regulations were enacted and foreign Jews were targeted for arrest. Her father was deported to Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp in May 1941 and transported to Birkenau concentration camp in July 1942. Her mother was assigned to a clothing factory, sewing fur coats for German officers. In July 1942, a French policeman warned Raisa that she should leave Paris. Raisa and Esther left Paris with Raisa’s mother and sister, Tauba and Sara Steinberg. The family had a summer home in nearby Villepointe and after staying at multiple farmhouses in the countryside, they decided to hide there. Esther was put in the care of a babysitter and then a non-Jewish couple, Monsieur and Madame Trene, a nurse. Raisa, Tauba, and Sara hid in the basement under a vault and a trap door. They lived this way for about nine months, until American soldiers came into the house in the summer of 1944 to tell them that they were free. Madame Trene did not want to give Esther back to Raisa. But after repeated demands by Raisa, Madame Trene thrust Esther at Raisa. The family returned to Paris where they found that their apartment had been emptied of all its contents. Max never returned and it was not until many years later that they learned that at age twenty-seven, he had been killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau in September 1942. In 1947, the Venezuelan government announced that they would accept 2000 Jewish refugees from Paris. Esther, Raisa, Tauba, and Sara emigrated that year. In 1949, Esther and Raisa moved to New York. Raisa married Ted Rosman. Esther moved to California in 1963, where she married and had two sons.

Max Feld was born on January 6, 1915, in Berlin, Germany, to Wolf, born September 18, 1891, in Lutowska, Poland, and Martha Eisenberg, born February 1, 1894 in Dukla, Poland. His father delivered medical supplies and his mother sewed raincoats. Max had two younger brothers, Alfred, born on March 15, 1924, and Sidney (Sigi), born on June 4, 1925. Max was born deaf and his parents sent him the Israelite School for the Deaf (Hebrew School for the Deaf) in Berlin, Germany. He met Raisa Steinberg, born April 1, 1917, in Kiev, USSR (Ukraine), a fellow student, in 1928. Max and Raisa stayed in contact and when Raisa left Poland in 1938 to join her parents in Paris, France, she stopped n Berlin to visit Max. Raisa’s parents had emigrated from Poland because the increasing anti-Semitism was making it difficult to live there. At the end of the year, Max’s family decided to leave Nazi Germany for South America. They stopped in Paris to visit the Steinbergs. Max and Raisa became engaged. Raisa’s parents did not want her to go so far away, so Max remained with the Steinberg’s, while his family continued on their journey. They would eventually settle in the United States. Raisa’s father, Michel, helped Max get a job as a dental technician. Max and Raisa married on December 26, 1939. In June 1940, France surrendered to Germany. Paris was occupied by the Germans and ant-Jewish regulations were put in place restricting their movements, and establishing curfews and food rationing. Foreign Jews were especially vulnerable and often arrested and imprisoned. Max and Raisa’s daughter, Esther, was born on December 22, 1940. Max was deported to Beaune La Rolande internment camp on May 1941. Raisa and Esther were able to visit him three times before he was sent to Pithiviers on June 6, 1942. He was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on July 19 and killed that September.

The deaf-mute sports medallion was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Esther Feld Weisel, the daughter of Max Feld.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Esther Feld Weisel