Bouquet of leather flowers made by an inmate at Bergen Belsen

Ruth Klemens (1927-2011) was born in Berlin to Alfred Wiener (b. 1885) and Margarethe Wiener (nee Saulmann, 1895-1945). They moved to Amsterdam in 1934 with her grandmother, Amalia Wiener. Around 1938 Alfred moved to London, and he relocated to the United States before Pearl Harbor. Ruth was deported to Westerbork with her mother and sisters, Eva and Mirjam, in June 1943. They were transferred to Bergen-Belsen in January 1944. They left in January 1945 for Switzerland as part of a prisoner exchange based on Paraguayan passports her father had purchased for them. Her mother died upon arrival in Switzerland, and Ruth and her sisters were transferred to Marseilles, where they were put on a boat to the United States in February 1945. 

The accessory was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by Ruth Wiener Klemens. 

Bouquet of leather flowers made by an inmate at Bergen Belsen 

overall: Height: 6.250 inches (15.875 cm) | Width: 2.250 inches (5.715 cm) 

The bouquet was created by Ruth Wiener from leather scraps found in her workplace in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. 

No restrictions on access 

No restrictions on use 

The accessory is a bouquet of leather flowers. The faces of the flowers are made of colored leather, and the leather stems are tied together.