us-005578-irn40091-irn42621
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Large, rectangular, lightweight, white cotton pillowcase discolored with age. Above the center is a white embroidered garland with a star and rosettes surrounded by a large, rectangular floral design with eyelet and drawn thread work. Along the bottom edge is a button placket closure with five Dorset thread buttons and five corresponding button holes. The cloth is scarred where embroidered initials were removed from above the garland.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1945 July
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
history: The embroidered pillowcase was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010 by George and Katie Frankfurter.
history: Kato Ritter (later Katie, Ida Katie Frankfurter) was born on August 26, 1925, in Vilmany, Hungary, to David and Gizella Weissburg Ritter. David was born in 1898 in Novajidrany, Hungary, to Matlyas and Kati Ritter. Gizella was born in 1900 in Olaszliszka, Hungary, to Zigmund and Pearl Klein Weissburg. Kato had one brother, Matlyas, and two sisters, Lillian and Julianna, born in 1927. Matlyas and Lillian both died at a young age. David was injured during his military service in the Hungarian Army in World War I (1914-1918.) He was a farmer, and also owned several general goods, butcher, and grocery stores in Vilmany and nearby villages. Gizella assisted in managing the stores. The family occasionally had servants and distant relatives living in the household. Kato’s maternal and paternal grandparents were observant Jews, but Kato’s family was not religious, although they did observe the high holidays. The family spoke Hungarian at home, but both parents spoke German and her father also spoke Yiddish. When Kato was six, her mother taught her embroidery. Kato attended middle school, and later attended a gymnasium in Budapest, Hungary, where she lived with a maternal aunt and uncle, the Sekes. In 1938, the German-allied Hungarian government began enacting anti-Jewish legislation, and Kato’s family was required to pay rent for their farm land to the state. In 1941 or 1942, she returned to Vilmany because her parents wanted the family together. On March 19, 1944, German forces occupied Hungary. Shortly after, Hungarian soldiers went to each Jewish home in the village and made a list of inhabitants. A week later, Kato, her parents, her sister, and the 50 other Jewish residents of the village were gathered in the Catholic school. They were allowed to bring as many belongings as they could carry; Kato brought some food and a set of clothing. Kato was friends with a Catholic neighbor, Klara Oppel, and her family had agreed to safeguard some clothing and linens for the Ritters.…
identifier: irn42621
is or was included in: us-005578-irn40091
record resource extent: overall: Height: 29.375 inches (74.613 cm) | Width: 36.625 inches (93.028 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Pillowcase returned to 20-year-old Kato Ritter by her Catholic neighbors, the Oppel family, in Vilmany, Hungary, in July 1945. Kato’s family gave the pillowcase to the Oppels to safeguard prior to their deportation during World War II (1939-1945). It was embroidered in prewar Hungary. The Oppels removed the monogram from this, and other items, because they did not want to appear to have aided Jews if their home were raided. Nazi-controlled Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, and one week later, 19-year-old Kato, her parents, David and Gizella, and her 17-year-old sister, Julianna, were deported from Vilmany to the Jewish ghetto in Košice, Czechoslovakia (now Košice, Slovakia). From there, they were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center, where everyone except Kato was gassed upon arrival. Kato was selected for forced labor, and sent to Peterswaldau concentration camp. The camp was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 8, 1945. That summer, Kato returned to Vilmany.
title: Large white pillowcase embroidered with a floral design recovered by Kato Ritter from her neighbors