us-005578-irn42319-irn43731
type: RecordSet
archival history: The sculpture was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010 by Vera Meisels.
biographical history: Vera Meisels was born on June 11, 1936, in Presov, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), to Cecilia and Zoltan Gardosh Meisels. Cecilia was born on July 5, 1909, in Trebisov to Malvina Gardosh. Zoltan was born on December 30, 1904, to Josef Meisels. Zoltan was one of seven brothers and sisters. Vera had an older sister, Aliska (Alice), born on February 24, 1932. They were an assimilated Jewish family. Zoltan and his brother, Moritz, owned a factory that produced nails for horse shoes. Nazi Germany annexed the Sudeten border region of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, and by May, the country had ceased to exist. The Slovakia region where Vera lived was ruled by the fascist regime of Jozef Tiso which was dependent upon and closely allied with Germany. In March 1942, Slovakia began to deliver its Jews into German custody for disposal per the terms of the Final Solution. Hungarian guards rounded up the Jews for transport. On March 27, 1942, while Vera and Aliska were in Trebisov visiting their maternal grandmother, guards arrived to arrest them. They wanted to take Vera and Aliska as well, but the Christian house maid persuaded them to allow her to take the girls back to their parents in Presov. They waited two days in her apartment, and then she took the girls home. Deportations also were taking place in Presov. Vera and Aliska, along with their parents, paternal uncle and aunt, Moritz (Marci) and Ilonka, and paternal grandparents were put on a cattle car headed for Lublin, Poland. At the station, they were told to get out of the railcar. After they disembarked, they saw a man named Joseph Lichardus standing with two German SS men. Lichardus had acquired the family business following its confiscation by the government. He told the SS that Zoltan and Moritz were essential for running the factory. The Meisels' house had been boarded up, so they lodged in a hotel. Lichardus sent the plant machinery to another factory he owned in Ruzomberok in western Slovakia. He moved the family there …
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Thin upright slab of brown terracotta clay with the base formed by folding the bottom under and back to form a stable flat support. The slab tapers upward with the front made slightly rough with vertical top streaks and horizontal central streaks. At each front corner are 2 figures with indistinct features: on the left is a small standing figure of a girl in a dress, arms lifted to her cheeks, facing a larger standing adult figure with a drooping head on the right. The front has a light coat of clear glaze. The reverse is unfinished and has a masking tape remnant. The base underside has the title and the artist’s name printed in English in green paint. base, underside, green paint : THE LOST CHILD
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: approximately 2000
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: irn43731
is or was included in: us-005578-irn42319
record resource extent: overall: Height: 9.500 inches (24.13 cm) | Width: 8.000 inches (20.32 cm) | Depth: 2.250 inches (5.715 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Clay sculpture featuring the figures of a child and an adult at the base of a high wall created by Vera Meisels, circa 2000. It commemorates her experiences as an 8 year old prisoner in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from December 1944-May 1945. Vera, her parents, Cecilia and Zoltan, and her 12 year old sister, Aliska, fled Ruzomberok, Czechoslovakia, after the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazi allied government in August 1944. They hid in the mountains, but when they ran out of food, returned to town and were arrested by the Germans. Vera’s father was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Vera, her sister, and her mother were deported to Auschwitz, but the train was redirected to Theresienstadt because recent actions by saboteurs had destroyed parts of the camp. On May 9, 1945, Terezin was liberated by the Soviet Army. Vera, Cecilia, and Aliska returned to Presov where they were reunited with Zoltan.
title: Commemorative clay sculpture of a child and adult before a wall by Vera Meisels