Concentration camp uniform dress worn by a Jewish Czech inmate

Leopoldine (Poldi) Kornfeld was born on August 23, 1913, in Poruba, Austro-Hungary (now Poruba Ostrava, Czech Republic), to a Jewish couple, Adolph and Frieda Freundlich Kornfeld. Adolph died in 1916. Frieda died in 1927. On June 12, 1938, Poldi married Hans Langer in Orlau (Orlova, Czech Republic). Hans was born on May 8, 1910, in Muglinau (Muglinov, Czech Republic), to Leopold and Therese Kohn Langer. Poldi was a dressmaker and Hans was a mechanical engineer. On March 15, 1939, Germany annexed the western provinces of Czechoslovakia, Bohemia and Moravia, where Orlau was located. On April 2, Hans was arrested in Ostrava by the Gestapo, but escaped after two days. Poldi and Hans fled to Prokocim, Poland, near Krakow. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. German forces occupied Krakow less than a week later. In January 1941, Poldi and Hans were arrested by the Gestapo and put in Prokocim labor camp. In November 1942, they were transferred to Płaszów slave labor camp. In January 1943, they were transferred to Skarzysko-Kamienna labor camp, a factory for Hugo Schneider AG (HASAG), which produced munitions for the German war effort. On August 4, 1944, Poldi was sent to HASAG labor camp in Leipzig-Schoenefeld, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp and assigned prisoner number 782. The camp was evacuated as Allied forces neared the region on April 13 and 14, 1945. Polly and the other prisoners were sent on a death march and liberated at the end of April in Oschatz, Germany. The war ended when Germany surrendered on May 7. Poldi was reunited with Hans shortly after liberation. Hans has bee interened on August 5, 1944, in Buchenwald concentration camp and assigned prisoner number 68563. On August 14, he was transferred to Schlieben slave labor camp, a HASAG factory and Buchenwald subcamp. Hans was liberated on May 8, 1945, in Nixdorf (Mikulasovice, Czech Republic). Hans’ mother Therese was murdered in Auschwitz on October 26, 1943. Poldi and Hans returned to Czechoslovakia, but decided to leave because of the Communist presence. They immigrated to Israel shortly after the country was founded in May 1948. After two years, they immigrated to the United States. The couple settled in New Jersey and Americanized their names to Polly and John. They opened a fabric store. John, age 76, died in February 1987 in Lakewood, New Jersey. Polly, age 79, passed away in February 1993 in Lakewood.

The dress was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Polly Langer.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Polly Langer, in memory of the Langer and Kornfeld family members who perished in the Holocaust

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.