Drawing of the lookout tower and barracks of Dachau concentration camp made by a recently liberated inmate
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 6.380 inches (16.205 cm) | Width: 3.870 inches (9.83 cm)
Creator(s)
- Irene Halmi (Subject)
- Fred Rudkowski (Artist)
- Fred Rudkowski (Subject)
Biographical History
Fred Rudkowski was a patient at the 127th Evacuation Hospital, United States Army, at Dachau concentration camp after its liberation on April 29, 1945. He recovered following treatment and was able to leave the camp in July 1945.
Irene Halmi was born in 1921 in Palmerton, PA, to Lajos and Julia Nemeth Halmi. She had three sisters and three brothers. She graduated from the Palmerton Hospital School of Nursing. During World War II, she was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Nursing Corps in both in the US and in the European Theater. Dachau concentration camp was liberated by the United States Army on April 29, 1945. The 127th Evacuation Hospital, the unit with which Irene served, arrived on May 2, 1945, to assess and to care for the thousands of former inmates of the just liberated camp. The three story building occupied by the hospital personnel was previously the headquarters for the German SS [Schutzstaffel, Protection Squadrons] unit of the camp. A nearby one story building housed the patient care facility. After leaving the military, Irene received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950. She returned to Palmerton and resumed her career as a nurse. She died, age 91, on August 14, 2012.
Archival History
The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Irene Halmi.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Irene Halmi
Scope and Content
Drawing commemorating the liberation of Dachau concentration camp created by Fred Rudkowski, a former prisoner. It depicts a lookout tower and barracks at the camp. Rudkowski entrusted the drawing on his departure from the camp in July 1945 to one of his nurses, Irene Halmi, in the US Army hospital where he had recovered from the inhumane conditions he had endured as an inmate. Lieutenant Halmi was a nurse in the 127th Evacuation Hospital which arrived in Dachau on May 2, 1945, soon after its liberation on April 29 by American troops.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Multi-colored drawing created with pencil, colored pencil, and ink on a wrinkled, slightly soiled white cloth. It depicts a barracks, lookout tower, and wall at Dachau concentration camp as if seen from a distance through a window. The drawing is within the top rectangular portion of an outlined pentagon. The bottom flat topped triangular section of the pentagon has text written inside with a smaller pink-colored triangle with the date of liberation within.
front, within triangle in lower portion of image, black ink : DACHAU / 29. IV. 43
Corporate Bodies
- United States. Army. Evacuation Hospital, 127th
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Pictorial works.
- Concentration camp inmates--Germany--Dachau.
- Concentration camps--Germany--Dachau--Pictorial works.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation.
- Nurses--United States.
Genre
- Art
- Object