us-005578-irn564933-irn566746
biographical history: Berthold Salzmann (1911-1990) was born in Lwow, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine) to Jakob (Jankel) Salzmann and Antonie (Toni) Zeller Salzmann. He had two sisters, Josefine (Finny b. 1906) and Ernesta (b. 1908). The family moved several times before settling in Vienna where Jakob worked as a civil servant. Berthold and Ernesta pursued careers as physicians, both attending the Medical School of the University of Vienna throughout the 1930s. On March 13, 1938 Austria was annexed into Germany, in what became known as the Anschluss. German authorities quickly created new legislation that restricted Jewish life. Jews were unable to attend university, were excluded from most professions, and were forced to wear a yellow badge to identify themselves as Jews. This legislation prevented Ernesta from receiving her degree. Berthold was able to graduate from University, but the law prevented him from practicing medicine. On November 9-10, 1938, during the Kristallnacht pogrom, Jews and their businesses, homes, and places of worship were freely and publically attacked by the public and Nazi paramilitary units. After this, the members of the Salzmann family began looking for opportunities to emigrate. In early 1939, Berthold was selected by the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF now World Jewish Relief) for transport out of Austria to England. In the wake of Kristallnacht, the CBF persuaded the British government to allow two rescue missions of Jews from Germany. The first was the Kindertransport, which brought Jewish refugee children to Great Britain. The second was the rescue of 4,000 adult men, many of whom had been arrested in November 1938 and incarcerated in concentration camps. The immigration was allowed as long as the CBF paid for the financial support of the refugees and guaranteed that neither group would remain permanently in Britain. Between February and September 1939, just under 4,000 men were able to escape Austria and Germany through this transport. Be…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Rectangular, faded, black leather medical bag with an arched top and metal framed opening that hinges and locks in place to hold the bag open. The front side has a metal lock plate near the opening, with a raised keyhole below 3 female slots for the male end of a hasp. Attached to the back is a leather strap that runs across the top opening and has a silver colored metal hasp with engraved text on the underside. Two C shaped, leather, center stitched handles are attached to the bag with metal rings looped through two triangular, rounded patches stitched to the top sides. The bag’s exterior has a stippled surface and the bottom has five rounded metal feet; one per corner, and one in the center. The interior has a leather bottom and cloth pockets on each side. The interior backside has a small rectangular silver and black metal label and a leather strap woven through slits in an attached horizontal strip of leather to form tool holders. The bag has reinforced stitching and the exterior leather is dried and rigid and the edges have turned orange and powdery.
has or had holder: us-005578
date: after 1935
type: RecordSet
record resource extent: overall: Height: 10.125 inches (25.718 cm) | Width: 17.000 inches (43.18 cm) | Depth: 7.000 inches (17.78 cm)
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn564933-irn566746/acquisitions/1
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn564933-irn566746/alternateIDs/1
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn566746
archival history: The medical bag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017 by Martha Gay, the daughter of Berthold Salzmann.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
title: Medical bag used by an Austrian Jewish physician
is or was included in: us-005578-irn564933
scope and content: Kruse leather medical bag owned by Berthold Salzmann or his sister Ernesta, two Viennese Jewish medical students who immigrated to America as refugees. In the 1930s they were studying to become physicians at the Medical School of the University of Vienna. On March 13, 1938 Germany annexed Austria and created new legislation that restricted Jewish life. Consequently, Ernesta was unable to graduate and Berthold graduated but was unable to practice medicine. In June of 1939, Ernesta immigrated to England where she worked as a hospital nurse before immigrating to the United States on November 22, 1942. Berthold was selected for a refugee program organized by the Central British Fund for German Jewry, and immigrated to England early in 1939. He was held at the Kitchener refugee camp in East Kent, and then moved to an internment camp on the Isle of Man after the fall of France in May 1940. On June 1, Berthold immigrated to the United States. Ernesta and Berthold’s sister Josefine, and their parents Jakob and Antonie were deported from Vienna to the Kielce ghetto in German occupied Poland. When the ghetto was liquidated in August 1942, they were likely deported with 21,000 other ghetto prisoners to Treblinka killing center and murdered. Berthold and Ernesta both became physicians in the U.S.