us-005578-irn523177-irn517876
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Irregularly, cut, rectangular light brown paper coupon. The front has printed graphics with German text in black ink. There are entry boxes and lines that are filled in by hand in light black ink. In the upper left corner is a stamped image of 2 tunnels in red ink. The reverse has handwritten German text in black ink. Coupons have been clipped off the lower left and right corners for use. front, center, handwritten in faint black ink : Blau Elsa back, center, handwritten in black ink : Schanko[?] / his eiuschl / 813 / 1943
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has beginning date: 1942-01-01
has end date: 1945-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has record set type: Item
history: Elsa Rosenthal was born to an orthodox Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, on October 23, 1893. Her mother, Fanny, was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1870, and immigrated to the United States in 1876 when her father, a cantor, accepted a position there. Fanny received US citizenship, but when her father died, returned to Europe, where she married, settled in Vienna, and had three children, Elsa, Leo, and Melanie. Melanie, who had a daughter, Edith, died of a head injury in the 1930s. Elsa graduated from the Vienna Conservatory of Music, with a degree in piano. In 1924, she married Adoph Blau in the Turkischer [Turkish] Temple, a Sephardic synagogue. They had two children, Gertrude, born on March 14, 1925, and Herbert, born on July 28, 1931. Following the Anschluss in March 1938, when Austria was annexed to Germany, anti-Jewish laws were passed and Jews were targeted for persecution and deportation. Elsa’s mother refused to leave without her family and attempted to get them all to the United States, but immigration was difficult and expensive. On August 13, 1942, the family was deported by the Germans to Theresienstadt concentration camp. They were separated as men and women were housed in different barracks. Elsa worked as slave labor at a Messerschmitt airplane factory and a Telefunken electronics factory. Herbert was able to celebrate his Bar Mitvah in Terezin, and his sister was able to attend the ceremony. Not long after this, Gertrude was transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp. On May 2, 1945, the Germans transferred administration of Terezin to the International Red Cross. The family was sent to Deggendorf displaced persons camp in Germany, where they were reunited with Gertrude. The family resided in the camp until their emigration. In November 1947, with the assistance of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they were granted visas for the United States, where they settled in Vineland, New Jersey. Adolph died in 1958. Fanny, age 91, died in 1961. Elsa passed …
history: The ration coupon was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Jeffrey A. Gordon, the son of Gertrude Blau Gordon.
identifier: irn517876
is or was included in: us-005578-irn523177
record resource extent: overall: Height: 2.120 inches (5.385 cm) | Width: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Ration coupon used by Elsa Blau when she and her family were imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from 1942-1945. All currency was confiscated upon entry and replaced with scrip and ration coupons that could be exchanged only in the camp. Elsa, her husband, Adolph, two children, and her mother were deported from Vienna, Austria, in 1942. They lived in the camp until the International Red Cross took over administration of the camp from the Germans on May 2, 1945. The family then was transferred to the Deggendorf displaced persons camp in Germany where they lived until their immigration to the United States in 1948.
title: Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp food coupon issued to an Austrian Jewish prisoner