us-005578-irn521884-irn515199
type: RecordSet
archival history: The miniature book was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Leah Derera.
biographical history: Leia Elerant was born on March 8, 1919, in Lipcani, Romania (Lipkany (Moldavian S.S.R.)), to Haim, an egg exporter, and Seiba Kreimer Elerant. Haim was born to Avrum and Frida Elerant. Seiba was born to Fruma and Shmiel Kreimer. Leia had two younger sisters, Nehoma and Genia, and one younger brother, Asher. The family was Orthodox, and Seiba kept a kosher home. Leia attended public school, had private Hebrew lessons, and participated in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. She spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, Romanian, and some Russian. Leia later worked as a dental technician. In 1937, she married her maternal uncle, Mechel (Muni) Kreimer, born in 1912. He had a fabric store in Lipcani. The German-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 returned the Romanian provinces of northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, in which Lipcani was located, to the Soviet Union. Romania had a long tradition of antisemitism, which was emboldened by the rise of Nazi Germany. General Antonescu and the fascist Iron Guard seized power in late 1940. Mechel’s business was confiscated. He and Leia moved to Cernauti and lived with an acquaintance of her father. She worked at a factory making rubber shoes. Leia supported the Soviet system until she was unable to receive a passport because she was Jewish. In summer 1941, she and Mechel walked to the Soviet-Romanian border, and stayed with her paternal uncle and his family. They learned that the Romanian authorities planned to kill anyone housing refugees from Cernauti, so Leia and Mechel left. Romanian soldiers stopped them, and an officer on horseback took Leia’s valise, wedding ring, and their watches. Leia and Mechel were taken to the Romanian police, put in a cellar, and questioned. The police sent them on a cattle car to Dornesti. Upon arrival, Leia was separated from Mechel and sent to a bathing house with Ukrainian women. Under Romanian guard, Leia and the women were forced to walk north from town to town to the Galician border. Peasants sometimes threw frui…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Square, miniature, handmade book with a reddish brown textured leather covered cardboard front and back cover and approximately 45 discolored white paper pages. It has a sewn binding and black binding tape on the leather spine, which is partially detached with adhesive tape repairs. There is handwritten Romanian text in black ink and pencil on the first pages and penciled text and a date on a page near the back.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has beginning date: 1943-01-01
has end date: 1943-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: ron
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn515199
is or was included in: us-005578-irn521884
record resource extent: overall: Height: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm) | Width: 0.750 inches (1.905 cm) | Depth: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Tiny leather book made for 24 year old Leia Kreimer in 1943 when she was imprisoned in Vapniarka concentration camp in Transnistria. It is dedicated to Leia by Sender, a fellow prisoner and poet whom Leia cared for before he died of tuberculosis on December 13, 1943. It has several pages of Ionesco influenced poetry. In mid-1941, the Fascist, antisemitic government of Romania sent Leia and her husband, Mechel, to Dornesti prison camp, where they were separated. In summer 1941, Leia was sent to a Jewish refugee camp in Zaleszczyki, Poland. In July 1942, she was deported to Swidowa labor camp. She escaped to Romania, but was jailed by the Germans for being a communist. In August, Leia was deported to Vapniarka and, in spring 1944, transferred to Grosulovo camp, then Targu-Jiu and Turnu Severin in Romania. The area was liberated by the Soviet Army on August 23. The majority of Leia’s family, including her husband, were killed during the Holocaust.
title: Handcrafted miniature book of poetry created for a labor camp inmate by a fellow inmate