Rectangular, discolored and slightly stained, white cloth armband double stitched together at the short ends. It has a narrow red border made from a separate folded strip of red and white striped cloth sewn to the interior. Czech text is hand printed across the front center in purple ink. A faded, circular stamp with Czech text and a caduceus, a medical symbol of a snake wrapped around a pole, is stamped right of center. A section of the border and band are separated at the top. Inscription: front, handwritten, purple ink : Kz. L. / TEREZIN front, around inner border of seal, stamped, green ink : SAMOSPRAVA BÝV. GHETA TEREZINA / ZDRAVOTNICTVI [LOCAL GOVERNMENT THERESIENSTADT / HEALTHCARE]
The armband was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004.
Handmade white armband stamped for medical personnel worn by an inmate in Theresienstadt
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Handmade white cloth armband presumably worn by an inmate at Theresienstadt ghetto/labor camp. It has a medical stamp and KZ. L Terezin handwritten on the center. The camp was run by the German SS but a Jewish Council of Elders organized municipal services, such as a health care system run by imprisoned doctors and nurses. Theresienstadt existed from November 24, 1941, until May 9, 1945, in the German controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in the former Czechoslovakia. Terezin operated as a transit camp and and ghetto/labor camp for Jews deported from the Greater German Reich. It was expected that many would die due to the poor conditions. Approximately 140,000 Jews were transported to Terezin: 90,000 were deported to almost certain death in the east beginning in early 1942. Around 33,000 prisoners died in Theresienstadt. The International Red Cross took over administration of the camp on May 2, 1945. The German commandant and guards fled on May 5 and 6 as the Soviet Army neared the camp.
overall: Height: 2.625 inches (6.668 cm) | Width: 4.875 inches (12.383 cm)