Cream handkerchief with her initials KS kept by 11 year Lilli (Karoline) Schischa when she was sent on a Kindertransport from Austria to Great Britain on July 13, 1939. In March 1938, Nazi Germany marched into Austria and made it part of the Third Reich. Jewish persecution. The clothing store owned by Lilli's parents, Wilhelm and Johanna, in Wiener Neustadt was seized. Lilli's brother, Edi, age 24, left for Palestine in October 1938. Her father was arrested during the Kristallnacht pogrom that November, but released after ten days. Her parents were able to get Lilli out of the country, but in February 1941, they were deported to the ghetto in Opole, Poland. They perished in the ghetto or in Sobibor death camp. Lilli returned to Vienna ca. 1947.
The handkerchief was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by Lilli Schischa Tauber.
overall: Height: 9.875 inches (25.083 cm) | Width: 8.250 inches (20.955 cm)
Karoline (Lilli/Lilly) Schischa was born on March 13, 1927, to Wilhelm and Johanna Friedmann Schischa in Vienna, Austria. Wilhelm was born in Gloggnitz in lower Austria on October 11, 1883, the oldest son of Josef and Karoline Gerstl. He had three siblings, Paula, Helene, and Adolf. Josef, originally from Mattersdorf, was a master tailor and was very religious. Wilhelm’s mother died in 1894 and his father remarried Anna Guenser and had four children, Ludwig, Richard, Malwine (d. 1927), and Erna. Lilli’s mother Johanna was born in 1885 and had two sisters Berta Ohme and Fanny Bauer. Lilli was raised in Wiener Neustadt, along with her older brother, Eduard (Edi), who was born on October 5, 1914. Lilli’s family was very religious and followed Jewish traditions. The Schischas owned a menswear store in Wiener Neustadt which was seized after the Anschluss, the integration of Austria with Nazi Germany in March 1938. Edi emigrated to Palestine that October. During the Kristallnacht pogrom that November 9-10, Wilhelm was arrested and detained in prison for ten days. He was then forced to sell their home. Lilli became ill with scarlet fever and had to be hospitalized. After she recovered, she joined her mother in Vienna, where she had gone with her sister-in-law. On July 13, 1939, Lilli was sent on a Kindertransport to Great Britain. As they waited at the train station, her father put both hands on her head and blessed her. Lilli was sent to live with a group of Jewish refugee girls at the Hackney hostel in London, but soon transferred to Cockley Cley estate in Swaffham, Norfolk. She worked as a seamstress. The war ended with Germany’s surrender on May 7, 1945. Lilli eventually learned that her parents Wilhelm and Johanna, unable to secure visas, were deported from Vienna to the ghetto in Opole Lubelskie in German occupied Poland on February 26, 1941. In spring 1942, the Germans liquidated the ghetto. The Jewish residents were sent to Belzec and Sobibor killing centers and Lilli's parents presumably perished there. Lilli returned to postwar Vienna in 1946 or 1947 as a member of the Young Austria Refugee, a group dedicated to creating a democratic Austria. She was reunited with her mother's sister Berta Ohme, who had not been deported because her husband was not Jewish. Berta had preserved a collection of documents, correspondence, and photographs that Lilli’s mother gave her just before she was deported to Opole. Along with these, she gave Lilli correspondence sent by Johanna and Wilhelm from Opole. Lilli married Max Tauber in 1954. Max, who was also Jewish, was born in Vienna on June 11, 1920, and had lived in Jerusalem. They have two sons. Lilli’s brother Edi lived in Israel until his death in 1963, age 49.
No restrictions on use
No restrictions on access
Offwhite handkerchief with a blue embroidered monogram carried by a Kindertransport refugee
Rectangular offwhite cloth handkerchief with a hemmed border finished with orange cross stitching. In the lower right corner are the initials KS embroidered in blue thread and a handwritten inscription in black ink. The cloth is stained. front, lower right corner, embroidered, blue thread : KS [Karoline Schischa] front, lower right corner, handwritten, black ink : R4