Beige patch embroidered with Czechoslovakia owned by a Jewish refugee

Identifier
irn60580
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2012.431.2
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

overall: Height: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm) | Width: 4.375 inches (11.113 cm)

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Ruth Rappaport (1923-2010) was born in Leipzig, Germany to Chaja Helene Rubenstein (1885-1943) and Mendel Rappaport (1877-1944). Helene was born in Mielec, Poland. She had many relatives that immigrated to the United States and Australia, including her three brothers, an uncle, and a first cousin, also named Helene, who started a cosmetics company. Mendel was born in Rostoki, Romania (Roztoky, Ukraine). His family ran a lumber business, and Mendel moved to Leipzig to help expand the business. He left the lumber business to become a furrier. Mendel's first wife died in childbirth, prior to his marriage to Helene in 1910. He had three daughters from his first marriage, all of whom emigrated by 1939. The family attended the large modern Orthodox Brodyer synagogue and kept kosher. Ruth attended a private Jewish school run by Rabbi Carlebach and belonged to the Zionist youth group, Habonim. Mendel was a Zionist and wanted to go to Palestine, but Helene had family in Seattle, Washington, and wanted to go to America. In 1933 anti-Jewish decrees were passed that restricted aspects of Jewish life. Ruth and her parents had Romanian passports, which did not state that they were Jewish, and they were not as restricted as other Jewish people. On November 8, 1938, their neighbors warned the family to stay inside the following day. Ruth decided to go out to see what was happening. She saw her synagogue on fire and Jewish property being destroyed during the November 9 - 10 Kristallnacht pogrom. Ruth told her parents what she saw, and soon after, the family left for Switzerland. After a short stay, Mendel and Helene decided to return home. Ruth did not want to return to Germany and jumped off the train just before it left the station. She became an au pair in Zurich for the Herzog family and attended daily English language classes. German laws forbid the export of currency, so Ruth’s parents sent large quantities of nail polish for her to sell for extra money. Although Ruth carried a Romanian passport, she was born in Germany, and this made her eligible for immigration to the United States under the US quota for Germany. One of her maternal uncles, Carl, agreed to sponsor her visa application. Ruth’s parents were able to travel to Zurich and say goodbye before she left. On October 26, 1939, Ruth boarded the SS Veendam in Antwerp, Belgium and was met by her uncle in New York. Helene and Mendel purchased visas for Cuba and Carl had lawyers in Washington, DC working to get them US visas. However, once the US entered the war in December 1941, it became impossible for them to leave. Ruth later learned that Helene and Mendel had been deported to concentration camps. Her father was arrested on October 11, 1943, and hospitalized in Buchenwald, where he died of acute heart failure on January 13, 1944. Her mother was transported to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald, where she was murdered in August 1943. Ruth attended high school in Seattle, and then studied sociology, oriental studies, and library science at the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley. In February 1945, Ruth became a naturalized citizen. After graduation, she worked for a Jewish newspaper in Seattle and for the Zionist Emergency Council in San Francisco. On January 1, 1948, she went to Palestine as an advance person to prepare for a mission of wealthy San Francisco Jews. While she was there, the War of Independence began and she wrote news reports as a foreign correspondent and helped establish the Israeli National Photo Collection archives. After her return to the United States, she worked for the Department of Defense as a librarian, both overseas and in Washington, D.C.

Archival History

The badge was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Peter Bartis, on behalf of the Estate of Ruth Rappaport.

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter Bartis

Scope and Content

Cloth badge embroidered with Czechoslovakia acquired by Ruth Rappaport, possibly when she worked as a foreign correspondent in Israel from 1948-1950. On November 8, 1938, one night before the Kristallnacht pogrom, Ruth’s non-Jewish neighbors in Leipzig, Germany, warned her parents, Mendel and Helene, not to leave their house the following day. Sixteen year old Ruth went out and witnessed the burning of her synagogue and other brutal acts against the Jewish population. Ruth and her parents soon left for Switzerland. After a few months, Mendel and Helene decided to return to Leipzig, but Ruth did not want to go back, and jumped off the train as it was leaving the station. Ruth’s maternal uncle Carl Rubenstein sponsored her immigration to the United States. Ruth left on October 26, 1939. and went to live with her uncle in Seattle. Until 1941, Carl tried to acquire visas for Mendel and Helene to travel from Cuba to America, but the entry of the US into the war in December ended that possbility. Ruth later learned that Helene and Mendel were deported to Buchenwald concentration camp, where Helene was murdered in August 1943, and Mendel died from heart failure on January 13, 1944.

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Reproduction

No restrictions on use

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Arched brown cloth bar patch with the word Czechoslovakia embroidered in red thread across the patch, with an embroidered red border.

front, embroidered, red thread : CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.