The medical kit was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Alice Fink, the wife of John Fink.
Alice Redlich was born August 12, 1920, in Berlin, Germany, to Georg and Ella Messer Redlich. Georg, born on August 8, 1884, was a salesman and World War I veteran from Schlabendorf, Germany. Ella was born on April 9, 1893, in Berlin. Alice's brother Heinz Alfred was born on June 9, 1923. The family considered themselves Germans who were Jewish. They celebrated high holidays, irregularly attended synagogue, and did not keep a kosher house. The children went to public schools. Alice attended Hebrew school three times per week and also belonged to a German Jewish youth group that was more social than religious. In 1932, Georg became formally affiliated with the Jewish Community, reporting official Jewish deaths to the religious and civil authorities. In 1932, Georg became formally affiliated with the Jewish Community, reporting official Jewish deaths to the religious and civil authorities. Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor on January 30, 1933, led to increasingly severe restrictions on Jews. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws defined Jews by race and mandated the total separation of Aryans and non-Aryans. Due to the high number of Jewish students in her school, Alice did not immediately feel the increasing anti-Semitism. However, in response to the encroaching restrictions, her father removed her from school in 1935. She celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in 1936. Her only experience of persecution was that by 1937, she was not allowed to attend German cultural events. In 1937, Alice enrolled in a vocational school and trained as an infant nurse in a children’s home. She completed her training in 1938, and with the assistance of a cousin living in England, was accepted into the nursing program at Miller General Hospital, a private hospital in Southeast London. In the months prior to her departure, she learned English and worked for a family taking care of their infant son. On November 11, 1938, Alice left Germany from Bremerhaven on a refugee ship and arrived in London on November 14. Unbeknownst to her, Georg was briefly arrested during the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9 and 10. At the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939, Britain considered all Germans over the age of 16 enemy aliens. Alice was called before a special tribunal which recognized her as a refugee and she was allowed to continue her studies. Communication with her family was difficult. A letter with a 25 word maximum, sent through the Red Cross, could take up to three months to reach home. The family had a relative in Sweden; Alice wrote her and she relayed the letters to Germany. The air raids over London began in 1940, and Alice was evacuated to the countryside. She helped care for the German children evacuated during Operation Pied Piper, in which the British government evacuated over 500,000 children from vulnerable target areas to the country. In the summer of 1942, Alice first learned of the atrocities being committed against Jews in Europe. She knew of a small community of Orthodox Jews in London and went to them for assistance in bringing her family to England, but no one could help. On November 19, 1942, Alice became a registered state nurse and worked various staff jobs. She volunteered with the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad and, in September 1946, as part of the Team 110 Jewish Relief Unit, she left for Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp in Germany. Alice cared for the children and young women, teaching skills such as basic hygiene and health. She put an ad in the Jewish Community newsletter to try and find out what happened to her family. With the help of a cousin who saw the ad and her family’s former landlord, Alice learned that her father, mother, and brother were deported to Auschwitz and murdered. At the DP camp, Alice met Hans Finke, born in Berlin on August 12, 1920. He was a former inmate at Bergen-Belsen, now working as an electrician for the British Army. In 1947, the couple got engaged. Alice returned to England to become a British national. She returned to Bergen-Belsen and the couple married on June 20, 1948. Hans’s sister, his only surviving family member, was a seamstress. She made the bride’s dress and attended the wedding. Alice became pregnant and the couple did not want to have their child born on German soil. They immigrated by plane to the United States, arriving in Chicago on September 1, 1949; their daughter was born soon after. It was not until this time that she found out the exact details of her family’s deaths from the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Georg was deported to Auschwitz on October 26, 1942. In 1941, her maternal grandmother, Emma, was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her mother Ella was forced into labor at the Siemens electrical and engineering company, arrested at the factory, and deported to Auschwitz on March 8, 1943. Heinz, 20, was studying at the Neuendorf hachshara, a Zionist agricultural school which prepared students to emigrate to Palestine. On April 7, the Germans told the group of 60 youths and 30 older residents to prepare for deportation. The next day they were taken to Berlin and on April 19, 1943, deported to Auschwitz where all were murdered. Hans changed his name to John and they changed their surname to Fink. The couple had three more children. John became known in the local Jewish community as a tireless crusader for Holocaust related concerns. Both he and Alice were dedicated to educating future generations and talked and wrote about their own experiences. John, 81, passed away in 2000.
a. Medical field sterilizer set: Rectangular, silver colored metal container base with rounded corners. There are 2 fold-out wire legs attached to the bottom right and left sides with 4 foot studs near each bottom corner. When supported on the legs, it would act as a basin; the ethanol burner would be set beneath it to heat the contents. b. Medical field sterilizer set: Rectangular, silver colored metal container lid with rounded corners and 4 sides, which make it usable as a shallow basin. There are 2 wire handles on the short sides that pivot upward as carrier handles or downward for support legs. There are 4 foot studs and engraved text and a caduceus with a crown maker's mark on the exterior base. c. Medical field sterilizer strainer: Rectangular, silver colored metal, perforated tray with rounded corners and 4 sides, which make it usable as a shallow basin strainer. There are 2 wire handles on the interior short sides that pivot upward as carrier handles or downward for support legs. d. Medical field sterilizer ethanol burner: Rectangular, silver colored metal container with 2 openings with threaded necks and removable screw-on lids with a cork circle in the top. The larger opening contains the wicking device consisting of a mesh screen with batting folded into a circle, with a wick in the center. The smaller opening would be used to pour in the liquid fuel, such as ethanol. The smaller lid is beaded around the rim and has an engraved caduceus with crown, the Aesculap logo. There are 4 foot studs on each bottom corner. This canister would be placed under the tray (a.) and lit to provide heat for the sterilization process. e. Flat, silver colored, metal instrument with a narrow center stem that expands into kidney shaped holes at each end. f. Flat, silver colored, metal instrument with a narrow center stem that expands into kidney shaped holes at each end. g. Rectangular cardboard box covered by dark blue textured paper with a paper hinge and a paper seal, broken on both sides. There is a paper label with a blue and black geometric design and product information adhered to the lid top. The interior is divided vertically into 2 compartments; each contains an ampule of a gold colored liquid, Lobelin, a respiratory stimulant. The base is lined with a section of cotton with another piece to place over the bottles. A folded instruction sheet is enclosed. b. exterior top center, engraved : AESCULAP g. exterior lid, printed on label : LOBELIN/ INGELHEIM / ( LOBETON) name geschutz / 2 Ampullen zu 0,01g Lobelin.hydrochl.crist. / C.H. Boehringer Sohn ingelheim /am Rhein
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a: Height: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Width: 7.250 inches (18.415 cm) | Depth: 2.375 inches (6.033 cm) b: Height: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm) | Width: 7.625 inches (19.368 cm) | Depth: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm) c: Height: 1.250 inches (3.175 cm) | Width: 6.875 inches (17.463 cm) | Depth: 2.875 inches (7.303 cm) d: Height: 1.625 inches (4.128 cm) | Width: 2.875 inches (7.303 cm) | Depth: 2.250 inches (5.715 cm) e: Height: 4.625 inches (11.748 cm) | Width: 2.375 inches (6.033 cm) | Depth: 0.125 inches (0.318 cm) f: Height: 4.625 inches (11.748 cm) | Width: 2.375 inches (6.033 cm) | Depth: 0.125 inches (0.318 cm) g: Height: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm) | Width: 2.250 inches (5.715 cm) | Depth: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm)
Medical field sterilizer kit with container and strainer tray, ethanol burner, instruments, a boxed set of 2 bottles of Lobelin used by Alice Redlich while she served as a nurse at the Bergen Belsen displaced persons camp established in the former concentration camp in Germany after the war. The British army liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945, and it then became a DP camp. Alice volunteered with the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad and, in September 1946, she left for Bergen-Belsen DP camp to care for children and young women. Before the war, Alice lived with her parents in Berlin, Germany, through the rise of the Nazi dictatorship with its increasingly harsh anti-Jewish policies. In 1938, 18 year old Alice left for England to continue her nurse's training. Her mother, father, brother, and grandmother were all murdered in Auschwitz. She met and married Hans Finke, a fellow German Jewish relief worker, at the DP camp in 1948. Hans had been a prisoner of Monowitz, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Flossenberg, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. His parents were murdered in Auschwitz and his sister survived in hiding. Hans was at Bergen-Belsen when it was liberated by the British Army on April 15, 1945. An electrician by trade, he began working for the British and then various aid groups after it became a displaced persons camp.
Medical field sterilizer kit used by a German Jewish refugee nurse and postwar aid worker