us-005578-irn599807
type: RecordSet
archival history: The curtain was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Allison Nazarian, the daughter of Lilly Dash and granddaughter of Paula and Sol Dash.
biographical history: Paula Dash (b. Paula Garfinkel, 1920-2007) was born in Łódź, Poland, to Aron Itzhak and Chaja Cypra Garfinkel. Paula had three siblings, Leon, Sala (1922-1942), and Henry. Aron was an architect and owned a furniture store. The family lived in a second floor apartment with a corner balcony in the nice part of the city. Paula and her siblings belonged to Gordonia, a Zionist group that believed in humanistic values, Jewish self-labor, and sought to build a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Aron was a Kohen (religious official), and the family was Modern Orthodox, observed Shabbat, and spoke Yiddish at home. Leon and Paula attended gymnasium, and after graduation Leon planned to attend college. On September 1, 1939, Paula and her family heard on the radio that Germany had invaded Poland. One week later, the German army occupied Łódź and immediately instigated violence and anti-Semitic policies. Jews were no longer allowed to walk on sidewalks and were often assaulted when they walked in the streets. Groups waited outside of synagogues to beat them as they came out. They were forced to turn in their valuables, and those suspected of not complying were beaten and tortured. Many Jews were taken by the authorities and never returned. Their families were told that they had committed suicide. On February 8, 1940, the Łódź ghetto was established in the older, poorer part of the city, and Paula and her family were forcibly relocated inside. They were only allowed to bring a small selection of pots and pans, a few clothes, and a few blankets. Her family of six had to share a small room with no running water or plumbing. In March and April, the Germans encircled the ghetto with a barbed wire and wood fence. Armed guards and dogs were stationed around the perimeter with orders to shoot Jews that approached the fence. The Germans ordered the Jews to exchange their remaining valuables for ghetto currency, and gave them the worst rations from the available food supply. Food scarcity quic…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Rectangular, white, thin, cloth curtain with red stripes decorated with square and rectangular shaped elements embroidered horizontally across the fabric. Just below the top edge are three narrow stripes, followed by another group of three narrow stripes in the same pattern. Below that there are alternating rows of three thick and three narrow stripes. At the center is a wide section of plain white cloth followed by the same alternating thick and narrow striped pattern. Just above the bottom edge is a set of narrow stripes, mirroring those along the top edge. The curtain is constructed from six smaller pieces of cloth sewn together along plain seams. The centermost piece is a brighter white than the other pieces. The top left and bottom right corners are patched with white pieces of cloth. The top, bottom, and left edges have approximately 0.375” wide finished hems while the right hem is very narrow. On the back, the lower right corner has two small, square white patches. Along the top edge and in the center, there are long horizontal tears exposing loose hanging embroidery thread.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
date: 1944 August-1945 April
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 2
has or had subject: 685
has or had subject: 42
has or had subject: 0
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn599807
record resource extent: overall: Height: 45.500 inches (115.57 cm) | Width: 23.375 inches (59.373 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Curtain found by Paula Dash while she was a forced laborer in the city of Bremen, Germany, from 1944-1945. Paula found the curtain in a basement, hid it in her bosom and used it as a towel in the mornings. Later, while living in Bergen-Belsen displaced person’s camp, she used it as a table cloth. Paula was living in Łódź, Poland, with her family when Germany invaded on September 1, 1939. A week later, German forces occupied the city and quickly established an enclosed Jewish ghetto in the city. Paula, her parents, and three siblings all lived in one small room. Her younger brother Henry, became very sick and in 1942, her father, Aron, died from starvation. Paula was a forced laborer in a sewing factory, working ten to fourteen hour days. In August 1944, Paula, her mother, and two brothers were forced into cattle cars and transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. Upon arrival they were examined and separated. While waiting to enter the gas chamber, Paula was selected for a forced labor detail in Bremen-Obernheide, a sub camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany. She spent nine months clearing rubble from Allied bombing. In the spring of 1945, Paula was sent on a death march to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She was liberated there on April 15, 1945, by British forces. While in the camp she contracted typhus, but recovered in a British hospital. She later married another survivor and immigrated to the United States.
title: Curtain that was used as a towel found by a Polish Jewish forced laborer