us-005578-irn514268-irn517046
type: RecordSet
archival history: The dress was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Trudy Katzer.
biographical history: Geertruida (Truusje) Simone Gittel Schoenfeld was born on July 14, 1939, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the only child of Walther Isidor and Margareta (Grete) Katz. Walther was born on December 12, 1906, in Kesselbach, Germany, where his parents, Simon and Malchen Katzenstein Schoenfeld, had a farm. He had two brothers, Moritz and Artur. Grete was born on February 27, 1909, in Ottweiler, Germany, to Levi and Berta Wolf Katz. Her father was a cantor and schoolmaster. Grete was the fourth of eight children and the family lived above the school. Following Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933, Jews were disenfranchised from German society. Walther was expelled from law school around 1935 because he was Jewish. Walther and Grete married in 1936/37 and left for Amsterdam. Grete’s parents and her brother, Werner, also emigrated there. Grete’s siblings, Nora, Siegfried, and Frieda left Germany for Palestine and Kathe, Robert, Ruth, and Lotte went to America. Walther’s brothers and their families emigrated to the United States. In Amsterdam, Walther sold handbags and worked for the Jewish Council. Grete worked as a milliner. Her mother passed away in 1940 of natural causes. In May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Jews were soon segregated from Dutch society; many were imprisoned and, after 1942, many were deported to concentration camps. Their neighbor, Mimi Grinberg de Silva Rosa, a German Protestant married to a Portuguese Jew, was active in the Dutch underground. While working at the Jewish Council, Walther was told by a German official that they would not bother Jewish families that stayed together. Grete did not believe this and, in 1943, asked Mimi to hide Truusje as round-ups of Jews increased. Mimi obtained false papers for the family, but Walther would not accept them because he feared he would betray Mimi if he was caught. Around this time, Grete’s father and her brother were sent to Westerbork transit camp, and then deported to Theresienstadt concentration…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Child’s a-line offwhite cotton dress with short puff sleeves and a front opening with French plackets and 4 hidden metal snaps; the top 3 with wooden button covers. The bodice and skirt bottom have hand embroidered pink hearts, and white, yellow, and blue daisies. The neckline and sleeve edges are trimmed with pink and white lattice patterned cloth. There is white piping where the bodice joins the slightly flared hemmed skirt, a single side seam, and 2 darts at the front and back waist. A cloth size label is sewn inside the neck. inside collar on label, embroidered, pink thread : 55
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: approximately 1943-1945
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn517046
is or was included in: us-005578-irn514268
record resource extent: overall: Height: 21.250 inches (53.975 cm) | Width: 9.750 inches (24.765 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Embroidered white dress worn by four year old Truusje Schoenfeld when she was a hidden child in German occupied Netherlands from 1943 to 1945. In May 1940, Amsterdam was occupied by Nazi Germany. In 1943, four year old Truusje and her parents, Walther and Margaretha, were ordered to report for deportation to a concentration camp. A neighbor, Mimi Grimberg da Silva Rosa, a German Protestant, who had hidden Truusje before, found them in the yard where they were being held and told the guard she had left something there. He let her in with her bike and as she went by the family, she picked Truusje up and put her in the basket, then rode out. She placed Truusje in hiding with a loving family outside Amsterdam, the De Bruins, who kept Truusje until the end of the war. Her parents were sent to Auschwitz extermination camp and killed. After the May 1945 liberation of the Netherlands, Mimi came and took Truusje away from the De Bruins. That summer, Truusje's maternal grandfather and uncle, Levi and Werner Katz, returned from Theresienstadt concentration camp. In November 1946, Truusje and her grandfather emigrated to the United States.Amsterdam was occupied by Nazi Germany in May 1940. By 1942, deportations of Jews to concentration camps were frequent and Truusje and her parents, Walther and Margaretha, were ordered to report for deportation in 1943. A neighbor, Mimi Grimberg da Silva Rosa, a German Protestant, rescued Truusje from the yard where they were being held and found her a hiding place with a couple outside of Amsterdam. Walther and Grete were sent to Westerbork internment camp, and then to Auschwitz, where they both were killed. After the Netherlands was liberated by the Canadian Army in May 1945, Truusje lived with Mimi until her maternal grandfather and uncle, Levi and Werner Katz, returned to Amsterdam from Theresienstadt concentration camp.
title: Child’s white dress with embroidered flowers and hearts worn by a little girl while living in hiding