us-005578-irn37868-irn42651
type: RecordSet
archival history: The sculpture was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009 by Daisy Brand.
biographical history: Daisy Schweiger was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, on September 24, 1929, to Aranka, born in 1905, and Ludwig Schweiger, born 1896. She had an older sister, Mary, born on November 3, 1936. Ludwig was a bank director. Her mother had attended finishing school in Vienna where she studied English, and thus she gave her children English first names. The family was comfortably upper-middle class and assimilated into local culture. They spoke German and Hungarian at home. In September 1939, the western powers signed the Munich Pact agreeing to the German annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia in exchange for a pledge of peace from Hitler. Not long after this, with the support of Nazi Germany, Hungary and Poland annexed adjacent regions as well. The bank where Ludwig worked transferred him to a small branch in Chust (Huszt, Ukraine), a region annexed by Hungary. The Schweigers became Hungarian citizens. Anti-Jewish laws were introduced gradually, but by 1942, Jews were stripped of their rights and forced out of many professions. Ludwig lost his job at the bank, and many of the family’s possessions were sold to support the family. In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. All Jews were interned in ghettos and soon the Germans began systematic deportations of the Jewish population to concentration camps. In May, Daisy and her family were taken from the Jewish ghetto to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, arriving on June 7. Her father was immediately sent to the gas chamber. Daisy, her mother, Aranka, and her sister, Mary, were transferred to Birkenau. After three weeks, they were among a group of women selected by Josef Mengele for forced labor in a different camp. That night, they were locked in a concrete building just outside the barbed wire fence, not far from the railway tracks. There were no windows in the room, just a few small glass panels near the ceiling. The women were crammed in, standing room only. The next morning when they were on their way to the …
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Mixed media sculpture depicting 4 Torah scrolls, set between a shadowy doorway and receding train tracks. It is constructed of 3 separate black ceramic boxes, joined for display by a wooden bar. There is one large, central box with smaller, same-sized boxes on either side. The 2 side boxes are arranged so the tops align with the top of the bottom third of the center box. The boxes are open to allow a view of the contents: the center box contains Torah scrolls; the box on the left has a painted image of the receding view through the doorway of multiple rooms; the box on the right contains a painted image of train tracks receding from a small, bright-white, arch. Each box has a black wood backing with a hole at the top to hang the piece. The weight would be supported by the top ceramic piece, not the wood. a. Central sculpture is constructed from the largest black box. It has an arched opening that reveals 4 ceramic Torah scrolls with wood dowels inside the center of each roll. b. Left box is a smaller, black box with an arched opening that reveals a painted sequence of doorways opening into empty rooms. At the top are 2 ceramic cuffs curled to support a wood dowel that goes through the box. c. Right box is a smaller, black box with an arched opening that reveals painted train tracks leading to a distant arch. Along the sides are poles that might be trees, barbed wire, or thin smokestacks. At the top are 2 ceramic cuffs, curled to support a wood dowel that goes through the box.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: Restrictions on use
has beginning date: 1997-01-01
has beginning date: 1939-01-01
has end date: 1997-12-31
has end date: 1945-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn42651
is or was included in: us-005578-irn37868
record resource extent: a: Height: 25.750 inches (65.405 cm) | Width: 11.000 inches (27.94 cm) | Depth: 5.000 inches (12.7 cm) b: Height: 16.125 inches (40.958 cm) | Width: 13.875 inches (35.243 cm) | Depth: 5.000 inches (12.7 cm) c: Height: 15.125 inches (38.418 cm) | Width: 11.125 inches (28.258 cm) | Depth: 5.000 inches (12.7 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Three part ceramic wall sculpture depicting Torah scrolls, train tracks, and a remote chamber created by Daisy Brand to evoke her ordeal of being imprisoned in multiple concentration camps from 1944-1945. Daisy's art became infused with her Holocaust experience in the 1980s. Her references are suggestive and deliberately ambiguous and she keeps the exact meaning of the symbolism in her work private, thus more evocative and universal. Daisy and her family lived in Chust, Hungary, when it was occupied by the Germans in March 1944. By May, Daisy and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Her father went directly to the gas chamber. Daisy, aged 15, her sister, Mary, aged 19, and her mother, Aranka, aged 39, were selected as forced labor for Kaiserwald concentration camp. In July 1944, the camp was evacuated as Soviet and American forces approached. Aranka disappeared during the forced march. Daisy and Mary were transferred to multiple concentration camps: Dondagen II, Libau, Stutthof, and Buchenwald. On April 17, Buchenwald was evacuated; camp inmates began a forced march to Dachau. They were freed by American forces near Wurzen, Germany, on April 24, 1945. In mid-May, Daisy and her sister were repatriated to their native city, Bratislava, in Czechoslovakia. With the help of the Red Cross, they found an aunt and uncle who took in the girls. This couple, and one other aunt, were their only relatives to survive the Holocaust.
title: Mixed media wall sculpture in three sections by Daisy Brand memorializing the betrayal and destruction of Jewish culture and religious faith during the Holocaust