us-005578-irn531498-irn37514
archival history: The locket was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008 by Elizabeth M. Orsten.
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn531498-irn37514/alternateIDs/3
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn531498-irn37514/alternateIDs/1
record resource extent: overall: Height: 1.250 inches (3.175 cm) | Width: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm) | Diameter: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm)
biographical history: Elisabeth (Liesl) Ornstein was born on November 8, 1927, in Vienna, Austria, to Hildegard Fulda, born in 1900, and Dr. Paul Ornstein, born in 1898. Hilda’s father was a successful businessman and Hildegard received Lutheran instruction, but was never baptized. Paul had ceased to practice the Jewish faith prior to meeting Hildegard. The couple met when both were studying medicine at the University of Vienna. Paul was the director of a private clinic that specialized in cardiology. She had a brother, Georg, who was born in 1930. The family was wealthy and lived in the Wahring district of Vienna. In 1933-34, Hildegard converted to Catholicism and the children were baptized. They were cared for by their nanny, a Catholic peasant, Emmy Burgmann, and they attended Catholic schools. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria and annexed the country. Anti-Jewish legislation was enacted prohibiting Jews from many cultural and economic activities. Despite their conversion to Catholicism, the Ornstein’s were considered Jews under Nazi racial laws. Elisabeth and Georg were sent to live with their uncles in Frankfurt, Germany, due to the increasing anti-Semitism. The November 1938 Kristallnacht [Night of Broken Glass] pogrom was particularly brutal in Austria. The children’s uncles were arrested and deported to concentration camps. Hildegard brought the children back to Vienna and they redoubled their efforts to get out of Austria. The Jewish Refugee Children’s movement found a family in England, Esme Cooke’s, willing to take in Elisabeth as a foster daughter. The English Quakers agreed to find a family for Georg and included both children on a kindertransport that left Vienna for England in January 1939. When the war began that September, the family Elisabeth was living with went to their country home and she was enrolled as a day student in a boarding school. Georg was placed with the Parrot couple in Scotland where he was very happy. But he was removed from there a…
identifier: irn37514
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Oval, silver colored locket with an interior frame containing a photograph of a young girl covered with glass. The locket has decorative wire edging and a ring and suspension ring at the top. The back is smooth metal with engraved initials. back, engraved in script : HEO [Hildegard Ornstein]
type: RecordSet
has record set type: Item
title: Silver locket with an engraved monogram and an infant's photo saved by an Austrian refugee family
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn531498-irn37514/alternateIDs/2
is or was included in: us-005578-irn531498
date: approximately 1928 October, 1940 September
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn531498-irn37514/acquisitions/1
scope and content: Locket with her baby photo and her mother's initials given to 13 year old Elisabeth [Liesl] Ornstein by her mother Hilda after they were reunited in New York in 1940 during the war. Elisabeth and her family were from Vienna where the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938 led to severe anti-Semitic persecution. Although they were practicing Catholics and did not identify themselves as Jews, they were Jews under Nazi law. After Kristallnacht in November 9, 1938, Elisabeth's parents decided to send the children out of the country. Elisabeth and Georg, 9 years, were given passage on a Kindertransport to England by the Quakers in January 1939. Her parents obtained US visas and arrived in New York in January 1940. After the evacuation at Dunkirk in June of that year, her parents insisted that the children be sent to the US, although German U-boats made trans-Atlantic crossings treacherous. The children traveled separately but, by September 1940, the family was together.
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has or had holder: us-005578