Blue velvet bimah cover desecrated during Kristallnacht
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 28.000 inches (71.12 cm) | Width: 13.125 inches (33.338 cm)
Creator(s)
- Hanna Marx (Subject)
Biographical History
Hannelore (Hanna) Simons was born in Hamm, Germany, in 1928, to Felix, born June 6, 1898, and Johanna Schulhaus Simons, born September 21, 1896. They were an orthodox Jewish family. She had two older brothers, Fritz, born on January 15, 1922, and Rudy, born on July 7, 1927. In 1941, the family was deported to Burgsteinfurt, Germany, and then Riga, Latvia, where they were imprisoned in the ghetto. The Riga ghetto was liquidated between June and November 1943, with the inhabitants transported to Kaiserwald or Auschwitz concentration camps. Hanna was a slave laborer in the Kaiserwald camp. The family was deported to Stuffhof concentration camp in Poland, at which point, Hanna and her mother became separated from her father and brothers. She and her mother, who survived together, never saw them again. Hanna and her mother were liberated at Putzig (Danzig) concentration camp in 1945 by the Soviet Army. They returned to Burgsteinfurt, but in 1947, they resettled in the American zone in Germany. In 1949, they were permitted to emigrate to the United States. Hanna married Helmut Marx, a survivor of Theresienstadt and Treblinka concentration camps, on January 28, 1950. They had five children. Her mother, Johanna Simons, died at age 70, on June 6, 1966, in Chicago, Illinois.
Archival History
The bimah cover was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2006 by Hanna Marx.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Hanna Marx
Scope and Content
Bimah cover, a cloth for covering a Torah stand, that was desecrated during the destruction of the synagogue in Hamm [Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk], Germany, on Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938. It was recovered from the street by Felix Simons, a synagogue member who lived behind the temple. He entrusted the bimah to non-Jewish neighbors for safekeeping. It was retrieved after the war by his daughter, Hanna. In 1941, the Simons family, Felix, his wife, Johanna, and 3 children, Hanna, Fritz, and Rudy, were deported to the ghetto in Riga, Latvia, and in 1943, to the Riga-Kaiserwald concentration camp. When they were transferred to the Stutthof concentration camp, Felix and the 2 boys were separated from Hanna and her mother. Fifteen year old Hanna and her mother survived together, but they never saw the rest of their family again.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Navy blue velvet, rectangular, bimah cover, with blue cotton liner and Hebrew letters stitched with gold-colored thread on the front. There is a curved accent in the center, below one of the letters.
Subjects
- Jewish children in the Holocaust--Germany--Biography.
- Child concentration camp inmates--Biography.
- Women concentration camp inmates--Biography.
- Synagogues--Destruction and pillage--Germany--Hamm.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
Genre
- Jewish Art and Symbolism
- Object