Pencil box

Erwin Bensdorf (1928-2009) was born in Mannheim to Johanna (nee Ohnhaus, 1897-1986) and Paul Bensdorf (1891-1968). He was sent on a Kindertransport to the United Kingdom in July 1939. He lived at Barham House in Claydon (near Ipswich), at a boys’ home in High Newcombe run by Protestant priest Mr. Bolton, at a boys’ home on Linton Road in Oxford, and then in private dwellings. He was befriended by Max Haybrook, a school teacher and aid worker for German and Austrian child refugees. Bensdorf immigrated to the United States in January 1945 via Liverpool and Halifax. His parents had escaped from Mannheim to France, were interned at Gurs, escaped to Casablanca, and immigrated to the United States in 1942. 

The pencil case was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000 by Erwin Bensdorf. 

Pencil box 

overall: Height: 3.000 inches (7.62 cm) | Width: 8.000 inches (20.32 cm) 

Brown leather-like pencil case with 3 graphite pencils, 2 fountain pens, 4 colored pencils and 1 eraser received by Erwin Bensdorf in Germany before he emigrated to England in 1939 and used in England. 

No restrictions on access 

No restrictions on use