us-005578-irn36230-irn37930
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has record set type: Item
physical characteristics and technical requirements: White un-dyed linen blouse, with short sleeves and smocked keyhole neckline with metal snap closure. Around the sleeves, key-hole, and seams is multi-colored embroidery featuring red, yellow, and pink flowers. Faggotting stitch is inset above the bottom hem.
identifier: irn37930
scope and content: Embroidered white smock worn by 2 sisters, Jacqueline, when she was 3, and Manuela, when she was 5, before the family had to go into hiding during the German occupation of France, which began in June 1940. The girls and their parents, Ellen and Frits Mendels, fled German-occupied Paris in 1942. They were French Jewish citizens who had to abandon their home and assume false identities. They found a safe place to live in hiding in the southern French village of Le Got. A son, Franklin, was born during this time. After the war ended in 1944, the family returned to Paris.
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn36230-irn37930/acquisitions/1
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn36230-irn37930/alternateIDs/1
type: RecordSet
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1940-01-01
biographical history: Jacqueline Mendels was born April 23, 1935 in Saint-Mande, a neighborhood in Paris, France. Her mother, Ellen (nee Hess), was born in 1906 in Hamburg, Germany. Her father, Frits, was born in 1905 in Almelo, Netherlands. He ran a specialty food import-export business. Jacqueline had one older sister, Manuela, born August 16, 1933. When Germany annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938, some people in Paris evacuated the city, expecting the war to come there shortly. The Mendels evacuated to Fontainebleau, but returned to Paris after one week. When France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, the family evacuated Paris again, this time to a hotel in Seine-Port, just outside the city. They returned to Paris in October. In May 1940, during the early days of the invasion of France, the German bombardments often forced the family to don gas masks and seek shelter in the cellar of their apartment building. The family left Paris a third time in June, joining a massive evacuation from the city. The Mendels were taken in by a family in Deux-Sevres, but returned to Paris after the armistice was signed on June 22. Jacqueline and Manuela were able to attend the local public school that September. In July 1941, the government instituted a program of Aryanization. Her father was forced to sell his share of the business to his non-Jewish partner, but he continued to work and would hide in a back room if someone entered the store. In 1938, Frits had traveled to Hamburg to try to convince his wife’s widowed mother, Sophie Hess, to leave Germany, but she declined. In November, 1941, she was about to be deported from Hamburg, but committed suicide by poison. From then on, Jacqueline’s mother kept poison ready for her whole family. Jacqueline and her sister understood that if the Germans came to round up their family, their mother would give them pills that would make them “die immediately” and they would “never suffer.” In June 1942, French Jews were ordered to wear the yellow…
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1944-12-31
record resource extent: overall: Height: 13.750 inches (34.925 cm) | Width: 16.500 inches (41.91 cm)
title: Child's white blouse with red, yellow, and pink floral embroidery worn by 2 sisters prior to living in hiding
has or had holder: us-005578
archival history: The girl's blouse was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008 by Jacqueline Mendels Birn, the daughter of Ellen and Frits Mendels.
is or was included in: us-005578-irn36230