us-005578-irn515082-irn517655
identifier: irn517655
archival history: The handcart was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Rita Prigmore, the daughter of Gabriel Reinhardt and Theresia Winterstein Seible.
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn515082-irn517655/acquisitions/1
scope and content: Small wagon used by Rita Prigmore when she was a child in Wurzburg, Germany, and after World War II, to cart bricks from the rubble of bombed buildings to help build a new home for the family. The Winterstein family were Sinti. They had traveled widely in Western and Central Europe until the Nazi regime restricted Sinti migrations in the 1930s. Rita's parents, Theresia Winterstein and Gabriel Reinhardt, met in 1941 when they both worked at the Stadttheater in Wurzburg. Persecution of the Sinti was escalating. They were no longer allowed to work at the theater. Several members of Theresia's family were forced to agree to sterilization. Theresia and Gabriel decided to have a child, and Rita and her twin sister, Rolanda, were born in 1943. The infants were taken from their parents by Nazi eugenicists and used in medical experiments. Only Rita survived and was returned to her parents in 1944 by the German Red Cross.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn515082-irn517655/alternateIDs/1
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1945-01-01
is or was included in: us-005578-irn515082
record resource extent: overall: Height: 19.750 inches (50.165 cm) | Width: 21.000 inches (53.34 cm) | Depth: 38.000 inches (96.52 cm)
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Small, wooden wagon with flared sides. The base is made of wood planks. The sides have round spokes attached to a top rail, which connects to the front and back rails. The wooden wheels have metal rims and metal hubs and are attached to the base with wooden axles. The back wheels are fixed in place with a metal bracket attached to the side rail. The front and back corners of the rails have a metal wire attached that goes under the base and attaches on the other side. The front of the wagon has a base for the handle attached underneath to the front axle; it protrudes in front and there is a tongue and groove for the rest of the handle. There are remnants of blue and red paint and a long white straw and plastic string are attached to the front rail. The front rail has a fiber string attached through the long rail to secure it through the front rail. A metal pin may be missing. The front wheels pivot on a large metal pin in the center of the base that goes through the axle to the handle to secure it.
type: RecordSet
has record set type: Item
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1950-12-31
title: Small, hand drawn wooden wagon used by a Sinti family
biographical history: Rita Reinhardt was born into a Sinti family on March 3, 1943, in Wurzburg, Germany. She had a twin sister, Rolanda. Their father, Gabriel, was born January 7, 1913, in Marbach into a family with a long musical heritage. He studied at a music conservatory in Stuttgart and played violin in a band with his 4 brothers, until the band disbanded in the late 1930s under restrictions established by the Nazi regime. The twins’ mother was Theresia Winterstein, born December 21,1921, in Manheim. Her parents met in 1941 when they were both performing at the Wurzburg Stadttheater. In 1941, several members of her mother’s family were brought to Gestapo headquarters where they were forced to sign sterilization authorization forms. They were threatened with deportation if they refused. Both Theresia and Gabriel were no longer permitted to perform at the Stadttheater. Before Theresia's sterilization was scheduled, she made a decision with Gabriel to get pregnant. By the time she was called in for the procedure in 1942, she was three months pregnant with twins. When this was discovered by the racial hygienists, she and her family were detained and an inquiry was sent to Berlin to determine what should be done. The response was that Theresia should be allowed to continue the pregnancy on condition that the babies be turned over to the clinic at the University of Wurzburg as soon as they were born. There, Dr. Werner Heyde, professor of neurology and psychiatry, and a key member of the Nazi euthanasia program, was conducting research on twins. Throughout her pregnancy, Theresia and Gabriel were under constant surveillance. The twins were born in the presence of Dr. Heyde at the University of Wurzburg. In the first few weeks after they were born, they were allowed brief stays at home with their parents, but otherwise were confined to the clinic. On one occasion, the twins were released to their parents for a propaganda photo shoot of Sinti parents strolling with their babies along the Do…