Kippah buried for safekeeping while the owner lived in hiding

Kippah buried for safekeeping while the owner lived in hiding 

Kippah buried for safekeeping while the owner lived in hiding 

overall: Height: 5.000 inches (12.7 cm) | Width: 9.125 inches (23.178 cm) 

Yarmulke, a skullcap worn by observant Jewish males, buried for safekeeping with other religious items by Johanna Baruch Boas while she lived in hiding in Brussels, Belgium, from 1942-1944. It originally belonged to her husband, Bernhard, who died in Berlin, Germany, in 1932. She brought it with her when she fled Nazi Germany for Brussels in March 1939 with her daughter’s family. Germany occupied Belgium in May 1940 and soon there were frequent deportations of Jews to concentration camps. Johanna had a non-Jewish landlady who hid her in her attic. In December 1944, a few months after the liberation of Belgium, Johanna was reunited with her 11 year old niece, Beatrice Westheimer, who had been placed in hiding in a small country village. Her mother, Johanna's daughter, and her father, as well as a paternal uncle, had been killed at Auschwitz. Johanna and Beatrice joined family members in the United States in 1946.