us-005578-irn102176-irn13555
record resource extent: overall: Height: 9.125 inches (23.178 cm) | Width: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm) | Depth: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm)
scope and content: Dark brown leather wrist watch worn by Hirsch Birman after the war as a refugee in Vienna, Austria. Hirsch and his father Abel lived in Kovno, (Kaunas) Lithuania, which was occupied by Germany on June 22, 1941. They fled, but were caught and brought back. On August 15, they were forced into a sealed ghetto. Hirsch was sent to Kedahnen concentration/labor camp in September, and Abel arrived in spring 1943. When the camp was being evacuated on July 9, 1944, due to approaching Soviet forces, they escaped through holes that Hirsch cut with pliers in the barbed wire fences. They hid in the forest until told by local farmers that it was safe to come out. They returned to Kovno but conditions were very bad and they decided to leave even though they had no permits. The war ended on May 7, 1945, and they arrived in Vienna, Austria, in September. From 1945-1948, Hirsch lived in displaced persons camps and worked for Bricha, a group that organized the illegal immigration of Jews to Palestine. He and Abel emigrated to the United States in 1952.
title: Brown strap wrist watch worn postwar by a former labor camp inmate and aid worker
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Wristwatch with a rectangular, silver metal case, converse glass cover, and dark brown leather band. The gold colored, off center face has painted black Arabic numbers. The face has a dark gold border with black painted diagonal lines marking the hours and minutes. Below the hands is a rectangular subdial with a single hand and a dark gold border with black painted diagonal lines to mark the hour. There is a gold grooved knob on the right side of the case. The band has a metal buckle and tine, a movable leather loop on 1 end, and 6 holes on the pointed end. The pointed end inserts into a slot in the top of the case, passes underneath, and exits through a slot at the bottom. There is French text on the face.
identifier: irn13555
type: RecordSet
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn102176-irn13555/alternateIDs/1
date: approximately 1945 July
history: Hirsch Birman was born on May 31, 1922, in Konigsberg, East Prussia (Kaliningrad, Russia)), to Abel and Zlata. Abel, a lumber merchant, was born on October 2, 1887, in Kovno (Kaunas) Lithuania. When Hirsch was 6 years old, the family moved to Klaipeda, Lithuania. In the early 1930s, Zlata fell ill. She and Hirsch moved in with his maternal grandparents and aunts in the Gargzdai shtetl. Hirsch went to a Jewish grammar school, attended synagogue, and ate kosher. Abel stayed in Kovno and Hirsch visited him during school vacations. When he was 10, Abel gave him a camera and Hirsch photographed friends, family, and daily shtetl life. In 1933, there was a strong and well supported Nazi presence in Klaipeda, a former German territory, Memel, given to Lithuania after WWI, but Hirsch did not experience antisemitic behavior. Zlata died in 1939. Hirsch remained in the shtetl and was raised by an aunt. In 1939, he returned to Kovno. Germany annexed Klaipeda on March 23, 1939. On June 15, 1940, the Soviets occupied Lithuania and annexed the city in August. They outlawed Hebrew, closed Jewish schools, and suppressed the Jewish culture. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Lithuania. Many Jews fled Kovno, including Abel and Hirsch. German soldiers apprehended them and forced their return to Kovno. In June and July, there were violent pogroms against Jews, and German Einsatzgruppen [mobile killing units] and Lithuanian auxiliaries massaced thousands. Abel and Hirsch were forced into the Kovno ghetto which was sealed on August 15, 1941. They lived in a single story wooden building with another family, with a wood stove and without water or indoor plumbing. On September 19, Hirsch was assigned to work the night shift digging up the Kovnos airfield. They moved several times and at one point lived with Hirsch’s paternal uncle and cousins. In September 1942, Hirsch volunteered to go to Kedahnen labor camp in Lithuania. He shoveled gravel into railroad cars and…
has record set type: Item
history: The wrist watch was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1999 by George Birman.
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn102176-irn13555/acquisitions/1
is or was included in: us-005578-irn102176
has or had some members with language: fra