us-005578-irn61063-irn86030
date: 1946 May
identifier: irn86030
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
scope and content: Blue striped knit vest worn by 4 year old Basha Schaechter when she arrived in New York in May 1946 on the SS Marine Flasher. Basha was born in September 1941 to Filip and Janina, who were living under false papers as Christians, Frank and Janina Rogalski. Just before Basha's birth, the village, which was in Soviet territory, was occupied by German troops. The family fled to a village near Krakow. Around summer 1942, their landlord said he knew they were Jewish, and that he would not report them, but they must leave. They decided it was safer to separate, since Jean and Basha, both blue-eyed blondes, did not look Jewish. Janina took Basha and went to Germany as a Polish forced laborer. She found work at an inn in Durnholz, Germany, and placed Basha with a Christian woman, Berta Antleman. Janina visited occasionally, but not as her mother, and Basha did not remember her. In spring 1945, as rumors spread that the war was ending, Janina said she would be leaving with Basha, but Berta said the child would remain with her. In April 1945, Janina asked to take Basha for a walk, and then ran away with her. They went to Stuttgart displaced persons camp in Germany. They were soon reunited with Filip, who had worked as a Polish forced laborer in Pulsnitz, Germany.
title: Child's blue striped sweater vest worn by a former hidden child on her arrival to the US
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn61063-irn86030/alternateIDs/1
has record set type: Item
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn61063-irn86030/acquisitions/1
record resource extent: overall: Height: 11.000 inches (27.94 cm) | Width: 8.750 inches (22.225 cm)
has or had holder: us-005578
type: RecordSet
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Child’s hand knitted, blue wool yarn vest with 5 horizontal navy blue stripes, a seed stitched pointed collar, and a ribbed waistband. It has 6 braid cables on the front that extend over the shoulders and 3 in the center back. The front opening has stockinette stitched plackets with 5 buttonholes and 4 blue plastic shank buttons with a painted floral design; the 2nd button is broken and the 5th is missing. The shoulders are hand hemmed with white thread.
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
is or was included in: us-005578-irn61063
biographical history: Basha Schachter (Shaechter) was born on September 10, 1941, in Bukaczowce, Galicia, Poland (Bukachivtsi, Ukraine), to a Jewish couple, Filip and Janina Hirsch Schachter. The village was in the eastern region which was placed under Soviet control following the September 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Filip was born on June 23, 1914, in Krakow, to Joseph (b. 1885) and Pesia Blumer Schachter (b. 1889). Filip had six sisters: Mania, Bronia, Helinka, Felitzia, Janina, and Jeanette Lusia. His father Joseph owned a grocery store. Filip received his law degree in 1936 and worked as a lawyer. Janina was born on September 11, 1916, in Stanislawow (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine), to Leon (b. 1880) and Scheindel (Charlotte) Weiser Hirsch (b. 1880). Janina had three siblings: Rachel (b. 1910), Karol (b. 1913), and Malwina. Her father Leon was an upholsterer. Janina was a bookkeeper. After the German invasion, Filip fled east from Krakow, almost to Pinsk where he registered with Soviet authorities as a displaced person. He then settled in Stanislawow and was a bookkeeper in a meat export/import firm. In 1940, he met Janina who also worked there and they married three weeks later. Because of Filip’s displaced person status, they had to leave Stanislawow and went to a small village, Bukaczowce. Filip obtained false papers for them as Polish Christians, Frank and Janina Rogalski, and they lived quietly, even going to church weekly. In June 1941, Germany launched an attack on the Soviet Union. German SS troops arrived in nearby Lviv at the end of July 1941 to finish the work of exterminating Jews begun by German killing squads who advanced through the region with the Army, shooting to death thousands of Jews. After Basha was born, Filip sent her and Janina to stay with a family in another village. Janina gave the family her fur coat and diamond ring, but after one night, they made her leave. Janina took Basha to Krakow to hide with non-Jewish friends. Af…
archival history: The knit vest was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by Barbara Schechter Cohen.