us-005578-irn597394-irn615685
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn597394-irn615685/alternateIDs/1
has or had some members with language: heb
record resource extent: a: Depth: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm) | Diameter: 2.750 inches (6.985 cm) b: Height: 4.375 inches (11.113 cm) | Width: 4.375 inches (11.113 cm) | Depth: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm)
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-camps/132
has or had some members with language: lat
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/819
has or had some members with language: slk
has record set type: Item
is or was included in: us-005578-irn597394
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-camps/0
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1991-12-31
biographical history: Frank (born Frantisek) Sim (1920-2005) was born to Rudolf (1877-1944) and Fredericka (nee Berger, 1897-1944) Sim in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. He had one sister, Helen (later Krzak, 1913-?), and a brother, Otto, who died as a child during World War I. Rudolf worked as an attorney while Fredericka stayed at home. Ostrava was an industrial town of 250,000, with a large Jewish minority population. While Fredericka went to synagogue regularly, Rudolf was not religious at all, and they only celebrated the major holidays. The family spoke Czech at home, and most of Frank’s friends were not Jewish. He even participated in a scouting program. Frank attended the public primary school and then gymnasium, where he had to study Latin and Greek, as he wanted to be a doctor. He also had studied German and French, and had obligatory religious education. In the fall of 1938, under the terms of the Munich Pact, Germany annexed the Sudetenland, a border region of Czechoslovakia. By May of 1939, Germany, Hungary, and Poland had partitioned Czechoslovakia and the nation no longer existed. Before the occupation, Frank and his family had never experienced any anti-Semitism, but had learned about the violence against Jews from German Jews who were seeking asylum. Frank’s sister decided to immigrate to England, and in 1939, the German army occupied Ostrava and burned the synagogues down. The family fled the city for Lipník, his mother’s hometown. There, the Jews had to live in one designated street, with two families to an apartment. In Lipník, Frank received training to work as an auto mechanic. In June 1942, Frank and his parents were ordered to the nearby city of Olomouc, and forcibly placed on transport AAG to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in the northern region of German-occupied Czechoslovakia. There, he was assigned to a work group in the transport department, shoveling coal and unloading supplies that came to the ghetto. Although he had to live separately from his parents, Frank o…
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1941-12-31
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1991-01-01
scope and content: Commemorative medal and box for the children of Terezin, received by Frank and Edith Sim when they attended the 50th anniversary commemoration of the establishment of Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in the Czech Republic (previously Czechoslovakia). In October 1991, the Terezin Initiative — an association of former prisoners of the ghetto — organized the 50th anniversary commemoration. In June 1942, Frank and his parents, Rudolf and Fredericka, were forcibly transported from Olomouc, Czechoslovakia to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia There, he was assigned to a work group in the transport department, shoveling coal and unloading supplies that came to the ghetto. Edith, her parents, Josef and Paula, and her brother, Ernst, were forcibly transported to Theresienstadt from Ostrava, Czechoslovakia in September 1942, and she worked for a time in the farm fields, enabling her to steal vegetables for her parents. In December 1943, Edith and her parents were taken to the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland, and she was later sent on a work detail to Hamburg, Germany, and then Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she was liberated in April 1945. In September 1944, Frank was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and then assigned to a work group deported to Meuselwitz, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp system in Germany. In April 1945, Frank escaped a death march from Meuselwitz and Germany surrendered to Allied forces on May 7, ending the war. Both Frank and Edith’s parents and her brother died while imprisoned. Frank’s sister, Helen, survived, having immigrated to England prior to the German occupation in 1939. After liberation, both Edith and Frank eventually settled in Brno, Czechoslovakia, where they met in 1947, and married in February 1948.
archival history: The medal and box were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Susan Kajuch and Pavla Sim, the daughters of Frank and Edith Sim.
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
type: RecordSet
identifier: irn615685
physical characteristics and technical requirements: a. Circular, bronze medallion decorated on both sides. The front of the medal has an engraved and embossed face – eyes, nose and mouth – looking forward. There are two embossed flaming pillar candles on each side of the face, and another three candle tips and flames that rise from the brow. There are approximately ten droplets embossed below the candles to emulate wax. On the outer edges, on both sides, are vertically engraved years. Between the two candles on each side, is a line of engraved vertical text, with a thorny vine running through the text on the right side. At the bottom is Hebrew and Latin text flanked by the artist’s initials. The back of the medal is embossed with a sea of people that become smaller and more numerous towards the background. Thorny vines extend from the edges of the medal and entangle the figures. Along the outer upper edge are seven indentations that each contain an embossed letter. b, Square, cardboard clamshell box covered in faded red fabric. At the front center is a gold metal latch constructed of a horizontal, rectangular piece of metal on the lid with a hinged square tab with a centered hole. A corresponding metal peg is attached to a rectangular piece of metal on the base. The interior lid of the box is lined with silky, white fabric and the base is lined with purple velvet. There is a circular indentation in the bottom of the base to seat the medal (a). The fabric on the exterior back where the lid and base meet is frayed.
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-camps/2
title: Medal presented to former inmates of the Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp during the 50th anniversary of its opening
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1941-01-01
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn597394-irn615685/acquisitions/1
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-camps/42