us-005578-irn522825
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: a. Small, oval-shaped, gold-colored, metal hoop with a flat back. A half sphere attached to the front acts as a hinge at the midpoint of the back. The top half pivots at the hinge and there is a small hole which hooks into a hole behind the hoop. b. Small, oval-shaped, gold-colored, metal hoop with a flat back. A half sphere attached to the front acts as a hinge at the midpoint of the back. The top half pivots at the hinge and there is a small hole which hooks into a hole behind the hoop.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has beginning date: 1939-01-01
has end date: 1945-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 445
has or had subject: 501
has record set type: Item
history: Sarah Stern was born to a Jewish family in 1910. Her parents were Meir (b. 1882) and Rosa (nee Koppel, b. 1885). Sarah had two younger sisters, Esther (b. 1912) and Bronia (b. 1927). In 1932, the family lived in Trembowla, Poland. That year, Sarah married Natan Kerpholz (b. 1905). They had one daughter, Zosia, born January 1, 1933. Natan was a radio electrician. In 1939, the Soviet Union occupied the region of Poland that included Trembowla. Then, in June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and captured Trembowla. In early 1942, the Germans established a Jewish ghetto, where Sarah and her family were forced to live. Natan escaped from the Trembowla ghetto to Lvov, but ended up in the ghetto there. He arranged for their daughter to be hidden with a non-Jewish family in Lvov. Zosia was taken to Lvov, but the rescuers became afraid for their safety if they were caught harboring a Jew, so Zosia ended up with her father in the ghetto. In January 1943, Natan died of typhus. Zosia was taken back to Trembowla by a non-Jewish acquaintance of her father, and reunited with Sarah in the ghetto inTrembowla. In mid-1943, as the Germans were liquidating the Trembowla ghetto, Sarah and Zosia escaped. They hid in a field of grain. Villagers brought them food and water. Sarah and Zosia finally made their way to the nearby village of Umniska, where they were hidden in a barn for eight months by Anna and Voitek Gutonski, former neighbors of Sarah’s parents. Voitek dug a hole in the barn where Sarah and Zosia could hide when necessary. On one occasion, German soldiers came into the barn looking for hidden Jews, but did not find the mother and daughter. On March 22, 1944, the Soviet army liberated the area. Sarah and Zosia returned to Trembowla and found Sarah’s sister Esther. Their parents and their other sister, Bronia, had perished in the Holocaust. In later years, Sarah lived in Israel with her daughter and her daughter’s husband, Kaddish Kalski. She died in 1993. Yad Vashem later…
history: The earrings were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Sophia Kerpholz Kalski.
identifier: irn522825
record resource extent: a.: Height: 0.500 inches (1.27 cm) | Width: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm) b.: Height: 0.500 inches (1.27 cm) | Width: 0.190 inches (0.483 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Gold hoop earrings worn by Sophia Kerpholz while she lived in hiding as a child from 1942-1944 in Poland. In early 1942, 9-year-old Sophia and her parents, Natan and Sarah, were imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine) by the occupying German authorities. Sophia’s mother had to turn the earrings over to the Gestapo, but they were returned because they were too small and not valuable enough to take. When Sophia emigrated to Israel she was told that she was a new immigrant because she had earrings. Her father had escaped to Lvov, but ended up in the ghetto there. Sophia was sent to join him, with the intent to find her a safe hiding place. But Natan, age 38, died of typhus in January 1943, and Sophia had to escape and get back to Trembowla on her own. In 1943, Sarah and Sophia escaped from the ghetto as it was being liquidated. They eventually reached Humniska, Poland, where former neighbors of her grandparents, Anna and Voitek Gutonski, hid them in a barn with an underground hiding place for over 8 months, until the Soviet army liberated the area in March 1944.
title: Gold hoop earrings worn by a hidden child in Poland