us-005578-irn37533-irn41425
type: RecordSet
archival history: The child's dress was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009 by Joan Kent Finkelstein, the daughter of George and Nadine Kent.
biographical history: Joanna Ludmila Klein (later J.L. Kent Finkelstein) was born November 15, 1936, in Warsaw, Poland, to Jerzy and Nadzieja Solomon Klein. Her mother, Nadzieja, born in 1904, was a literary critic and wrote for the liberal weekly Wiadomosci Literackie. Nadzieja received a PhD in 1928 from the University of Warsaw. Her father, Jerzy, born in 1901, was a mechanical engineer and a 1926 graduate of the Polytechnic Institute in Warsaw. As an independent entrepreneur, Jerzy directed such projects as installing sound systems in movie theaters and devised plans for an underground train system in Warsaw. Following Hitler’s remilitarization of the Rhineland in March 1936, Jerzy decided to leave Europe and applied for American visas. He obtained a British immigration visa, but not a work permit, despite previous study and work experience in England. In September 1939, Germany invaded and occupied Poland. In January 1940, Joanna’s nanny, a Volksdeutsche [ethnic German], returned from a family visit to western Poland and warned the Kleins to leave. They lived in Warsaw on Marszałkowska Street in a building owned by Joanna’s maternal great aunt, Elizawieta Palcew, who had immigrated to Warsaw from Moscow as a young wife. Now a widow, she operated a lucrative shoe factory and kept some of her savings in pre1933 American dollars. The family had also deposited funds with JDC [Joint Distribuion Committee.] Jerzy purchased travel visas and exit permits for round trip travel to Italy via Peru, from the Jewish-owned Orbis travel agency, which obtained them for fifty US dollars each from a corrupt German official in Krakow. The morning they were to receive their documents, Orbis was raided and closed by the Nazis, but the agency’s courier was tipped off about the raid by the non-Jewish doorman, and he personally delivered the permits. Jerzy had arranged to have nine steamer trunks and several suitcases forwarded; all arrived intact in New York. The Kleins left Warsaw by train immediately, ab…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Pink silk child’s dress with a pink cabbage rose pattern. It has cap sleeves and smocking across the chest and back. There is lace on the neckline that forms a key-hole and extends across and on the border at the shoulders. There are 2 small buttons and 2 cord button loops at the back opening.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1940 April 20-1941 February 17
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 2
has or had identifier: 3
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn41425
is or was included in: us-005578-irn37533
record resource extent: overall: Height: 17.250 inches (43.815 cm) | Width: 24.500 inches (62.23 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Child's pink silk dress with a lace neckline that belonged to 3 year old Joanna Klein when she, her parents, Nadzieja and Jerzy, and her great-aunt, Elizawieta Palcew, escaped Warsaw, Poland, after living under German occupation since September 1939. Jerzy had applied for US visas in 1936 following Hitler’s remilitarization of the Rhineland, but was unsuccessful because of restrictive US entry quotas. Jerzy acquired false travel papers for roundtrip travel to Peru via Italy. The family traveled by train to Trieste where they obtained transit permits through Yugoslavia and Greece to Turkey. Up to this point, they had been accompanied by Nadzieja’s brother, wife, and child. But in Istanbul, Nadzieja’s family obtained US visas, valid for 3 months; her brother’s family had not applied previously and continued onto Palestine. Jerzy Klein's family and Elizawieta Palcew were evacuated by the British by train to Baghdad, and then Basra, in Iraq. From there, they sailed to Karachi and Bombay (Mumbai), India, where, in January 1941, they boarded an American cruise liner, the USS President Harrison, and arrived in New York on February 17.
title: Child's pink silk cabbage rose patterned dress brought to the US by a Jewish family fleeing German occupied Poland