us-005578-irn45444-irn50948
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Baby teething ring and rattle made of a circle of orange bakelite with a silver teardrop shaped rattle attached by a clasp. One side of the rattle is engraved with an image of a seated dog. The other side has an engraved image of a dog, a Dachschund, standing and looking up at a cat perched upon a table.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1941 December 01
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
history: Alfred Munzer was born on November 23, 1941, in The Hague, Netherlands, to Simcha (Siegfried) and Gisele (Gitel) Munzer. Simcha was born in early September 1904, in Kanczuga, Poland. Gisele was born on May 20, 1905, in Rymanow. The couple, distantly related cousins, met when they were teenagers. In the late 1920’s, Simcha moved to The Hague, where his brother Emil lived. He opened a tailoring business. Gisele moved to Berlin to be with her brother and sister and worked in their tailoring business. Gisele moved to The Hague in December 1932 and the couple wed that December 16. They had their first child, Eva, on July 10, 1936, and their second, Leana, on November 12, 1938. On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. An SS controlled civil administration was established and systems were created to track and monitor the Jewish population. Jews were banned from the civil service and required to register their assets, and the next year, themselves. In August 1941, Jewish children could no longer attend public schools. Upon the advice of their Catholic neighbors Jo and Ko Van Luhrmann, the Munzers registered their daughters at a Catholic school. When Gisele got pregnant in 1941, her obstetrician advised that she have an abortion, but she was inspired by the Biblical story of the childless Hannah to keep the baby. The doctor was furious and refused to treat Gisele after that. They were unsure whether to hold a bris which would identify the child as a Jew, but they did so following the pediatrician’s recommendation that the child be circumcised. On May 21, 1942, Simcha was ordered to report to a labor camp and began to make arrangements for the family to go into hiding. He had a hernia operation to delay his deportation, then faked a suicide attempt in order to be admitted to a psychiatric clinic, Remarkkliniek. The Luhrmann’s, aided by two priests, Fathers Schulling and Lodders, sought hiding places for Eva and Leana. They were placed with the Catholic Jansen family …
history: The teething ring rattle was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Alfred Munzer.
identifier: irn50948
is or was included in: us-005578-irn45444
record resource extent: overall: Height: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) | Width: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm) | Depth: 0.500 inches (1.27 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Silver and bakelite teething ring and rattle given to Alfred Munzer for his Bris Mila by his paternal uncle Emil Muenzer in The Hague, Netherlands, on December 1, 1941. The Netherlands had been occupied by Nazi Germany in May 1940. Alfred's father Simcha was ordered to report for labor service in May 1942. He managed to get himself committed to a psychiatric hospital to avoid deportation. His wife, Gisele, placed their two daughters, Eva, 6, and Liane, 3, in hiding with a Catholic family, the Jansens. In September 1942, nine month old Alfred was placed into hiding with Annie Madna, who lived across the street. After two months, Annie placed Alfred in the care of Tole, her ex-husband, who had custody of their three children. He was treated like a family member and cared for by Mima Saina, the family's housekeeper who was Indonesian, as was Tole. Gisele went into hiding as a nurse's assistant in the clinic where Simcha was a patient. That December, the Germans took over the clinic and Gisele and Simcha were arrested, put in forced labor service, and then deported to Auschwitz in June 1944. The couple keeping Alfred's sisters, Eva and Liane, had a fight and the husband reported his wife and the two girls to the SS. Eva and Liane were deported and killed on arrival in Auschwitz on February 11, 1944. Simcha was liberated in Ebensee in May 1945 but died there of tuberculosis in August. Gisele was liberated during a transport from Ravensbrueck when the train crossed into the Red Cross Zone on the Danish border managed by Count Folke Bernadotte in April 1945. She and Alfred were reunited in August. Alfred did not remember his mother and she stayed with the Madna family as they got reacquainted. In October, Gisele and Alfred moved to a nearby apartment. Mima was to have moved with them, but she died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Gisele worked as a seamstress and electrician and Alfred was enrolled in public and Hebrew school.
title: Silver and plastic teething ring rattle used by an infant who was placed in hiding by his family