The belt was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2006 by Josef Blonder.
Josef Blonder was born on June 21, 1926, in Nagyvarad (Oradea), Romania, to Yokheved Makhla and Avraham Blonder. Avraham was born in 1894 in Szarvas, Hungary, to Shlomo; his mother was born in 1896. Josef had an older brother, Barukh, born in 1923, and a younger sister, Lea, born in 1930. On June 7, 1944, the family was deported by the Fascist Hungarian government from Oradea to their German allies who sent the family to Auschwitz concentration camp. His parents and siblings were killed soon after arrival. Josef was transferred to a series of concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen, and a sub-camp of Mauthausen, Gusen II. He emigrated to the United States after the Holocaust and settled in New Jersey.
Brown leather belt with a black finish. There are 5 original punch holes at the end, with 4 holes added later. There is a flat silver-colored metal buckle with an incised front design of 3 stacked L shapes with raised outlines and a dark finish within the L. The buckle is not original to the belt as it does not use punch hole fasteners. It connects to the belt by a bracket on the back with a textured metal rod to secure the other end. There is a horizontal slit in the belt, near the buckle.
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overall: Height: 49.500 inches (125.73 cm) | Width: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm)
Belt worn by Josef Blonder throughout his imprisonment at several concentration camps. Eighteen year old Blonder was deported, with his parents and 2 siblings, from Oradea (Nagyvarad), Romania, to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. His father, Avraham, his mother, Yokheved, 21 year old brother, Barukh, and 14 year old sister, Lea, were murdered in Auschwitz. Blonder was transferred to, but survived, imprisonment in Mauthausen and its sub-camp, Gusen II.
Leather belt with metal buckle worn by a concentration camp inmate