overall: Height: 10.750 inches (27.305 cm) | Width: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) | Depth: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm)
Chain of silver-colored, barrel-shaped, metal beads that are encased in a rusted, iron-alloy link with loops on the ends that link to the loops on the adjacent beads. One end of the chain has a thin metal ring; the other end has a bigger, dark-colored, metal bead with an elongated, hinged loop, rusted at a right angle.
Alexander Stankiewicz, a Roman Catholic, was born on November 16, 1903, in Kamienskoje (or Kaminsk) Poland (or Russia). He was of Polish nationality and lived with his mother, Stanislawa Raczowska. He was barber and hairdresser. In 1941, he lived in Wloclawek, Poland, called Leslau by the occupying Germans. He was arrested February 16 for membership in a Polish political and literary organization, Kujawski Zwiazek Polityczno Literacki Zew. He was sentenced to prison and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. His prisoner number was 24993. On March 11, 1943, he was transferred to a work detail in a nearby subcamp in Linz. After the war, he returned to Poland.
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Bead chain used by Alexander Stankiewicz while an inmate at Mauthausen concentration camp where he worked as a barber. The chain resembles those used by German soldiers to clean their rifles. Stankiewicz was a Roman Catholic Pole, living in Wloclawek, (Leslau) Poland, who was arrested in 1941 by the occupying Germans for his membership in a Polish political and literary organization. At Mauthausen, his prisoner number was 24993. After the war ended in 1945, he returned to Poland.
Chain of metal beads used by a barber in a concentration camp
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The chain was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Jan Niebrzydowski.