us-005578-irn46863-irn50593
type: RecordSet
archival history: The baby spoon was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Elizabeth Lusthaus Strassburger, the granddaughter of Sophie Lieberman Schiff.
biographical history: Elzbieta Lusthaus was born on May 15, 1938, in Krakow, Poland to Edmund and Helena (Amkraut) Lusthaus. Edmund was born in Brzozow on August 2, 1899, and attended medical school at Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov. Helena was born in Przemysl on June 8, 1911, but grew up in Sanok and worked as an assistant pharmacist. Edmund and Helena married on May 17, 1936, and settled in the resort town of Iwonicz. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Edmund was drafted into the Polish army. At the time of the invasion, Edmund was visiting his parents in Stryj which soon came under Soviet control after that country invaded Poland. Edmund was deported to a prisoner of war labor camp in Novosibirsk, Siberia. In November, Helena and her baby daughter went to Tarnow to live with Helena's mother, Sophie Lieberman Schiff. Helena's father, Isak Amkraut, was divorced from Sophie and lived in the Netherlands, where he owned a diamond cutting business. In the initial stages of the war, Isak was able to support Helena by sending her food and diamonds. In 1941, they were relocated into the Tarnow ghetto. Helena was assigned as forced labor as a seamstress in a German Army uniform workshop outside the ghetto. In June 1942, police rounding up Jews for deportation came to the apartment. Sophie told Elzbieta to hide under the bed, but Sophie was arrested and deported to Belzec killing center. Helena had been safe from earlier deportation actions, but now, afraid for Elzbieta, she went into hiding. She was able to buy false identification papers for Elzbieta and herself and, a few days later, they fled Tarnow using the false identities of Maria and Barbara Stachura, Polish Catholics. Christian friends of her mother had found a family willing to hide them for money. They settled in Milanowek, where they lived with Kazimierz and Genowefa Bandyrowa and their two daughters, Wisia and Hanka. The two girls took care of Elzbieta, known as Basia. During police inspections, they would smear h…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Small, tarnished silver baby's feeding spoon with a shallow, round bowl with a flat rim. The neck narrows, expands into a scroll shape and curves into the beveled stem which widens into a flat, hour glass shaped handle with a slightly rounded tip. There are 3 hallmarks, worn from use, stamped on the handle back: an oval with a man's head in left profile; a cinquefoil lobed design with a woman's head in right profile, possibly a Diana kopf or Diana' head mark, used from 1872-1922, on .800 silver standard pieces, and an oval with, perhaps, a flower.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: after 1872-before 1922
has beginning date: 1941-01-01
has end date: 1941-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn50593
is or was included in: us-005578-irn46863
record resource extent: overall: Height: 3.500 inches (8.89 cm) | Width: 0.750 inches (1.905 cm) | Depth: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Silver infant's feeding spoon given to 3 year old Elzbieta Lusthaus by her maternal grandmother, Sophie Lieberman Schiff, when they were living in Tarnow, Poland, which was occupied by Nazi Germany in September 1939. On June 11, 1942, the Germans came to the house searching for Jews to deport to the concentration camps. Four year old Elzbieta hid, but her grandmother was taken by the Germans and shipped to Belzec killing center. Elzbieta and her mother, Helena, fled Tarnow and assumed false identities as Barbara and Maria Stachura, Polish Catholics, sheltered by Kazimierz and Genowefa Bandyrowa, a Catholic family in Milanowek. They kept the spoons and other items given to Elzbieta by her grandmother through all their travels. The area was liberated in January 1945. In May, Helena paid to have them smuggled into Czechoslovakia. They went to Vienna and stayed for six weeks at the Rothschild hospital, moved to a displaced persons camp in Germany and then to a sanatorium for malnourished children in Strueth. A medical inspection team toured the camp in May 1945. Helena recognized a man as a friend of her husband, Edmund, a doctor. He told her Edmund was alive and they were reunited with him in Italy where he was serving with the 2nd Polish Corps, British Army. In December 1946, the family emigrated to Great Britain.
title: Silver baby's feeding spoon owned by hidden child