us-005578-irn624324-irn633655
type: RecordSet
archival history: The armband was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Judith Marx, the daughter of Hans Benjamin Marx.
biographical history: Hans Benjamin Marx (b. 1927) was born in Mannheim, Germany, to Elise (née Rihm, 1898-1976) and Ernest Marx (1895-1965). Ernest was born in Mannheim, and worked as a traveling salesman. Elise was born in Mannheim to Protestant parents, but converted to Orthodox Judaism prior to marrying Ernest. Hans’s had one older sister, Claire (Klara, 1925-2009). The family moved to Frankfurt am Main in the early spring of 1932. Han’s mother wanted to raise her children fully Jewish. Hans’s father, however, was less religiously inclined, resulting in Hans and his sister belonging to an Orthodox congregation while growing up in a home that was not especially observant. They celebrated some Jewish holidays, but did not follow kosher rules. Hans’s father refused to go to the synagogue, and instead of observing the Sabbath the children attended school on Saturdays. Less than three months after Hitler came to power in January 1933, Hans enrolled in first grade in his neighborhood public school. Following the September 15, 1935, passage of the Nuremberg Laws, Hans and Claire, as offspring of a mixed marriage, were classified as Geltungsjude, Jews by law. In 1938, Jewish children were barred from public schools, and Hans and Claire had to travel nearly an hour by bus and streetcar to get to their new school. On November 9 and 10, during the Kristallnacht pogrom, the family’s synagogue was robbed, along with local Jewish businesses. On November 11, the Gestapo showed up at the Marx house and arrested Hans’s father, Ernest, and then deported him to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was assigned prisoner number 29361. Hans and his mother and sister were forced out of their house in order to make their neighborhood Judenrein, free of Jews, by the end of the month. They had to sell off most of their costlier furniture and possessions and move into a designated Jewish building. Ernest returned from Buchenwald on December 8. He was released because he had a visa for Switzerland, and promi…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Rectangular, cream cloth armband with hemmed edges folded onto the back and hand stitched with cream thread. There is blue, handwritten ink text and a blue ink stamp of a small circle inside of a slightly larger circle on the front. The cloth bulges out on the upper right edge, and is fraying along the top and bottom edges. The armband is slightly discolored and stained in several areas throughout. The text has bled through to the back. front, center, handwritten, blue ink : Konzentrationslager / TEREZIN / XII/10-20 [Concentration Camp / Terezin / XII/10-20] front, lower right, stamp, blue ink : circular and illegible
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: approximately 1945 May 08-approximately 1945 June 14
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn633655
is or was included in: us-005578-irn624324
record resource extent: overall: Height: 3.500 inches (8.89 cm) | Width: 6.375 inches (16.192 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Theresienstadt armband worn by Hans Benjamin Marx after liberation in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp and on his journey home between May 8 and June 14, 1945. The Soviet commander in charge of the liberated camp prohibited Judenstern, and instead authorized the released prisoners to wear an armband with their transport number on it. Hans spent most of the war in Frankfurt with his older sister, Claire, and their mother, Elise. Elise was a Protestant, but converted to Judaism before getting married to Hans’s father, Ernest. In November 1938, following the Kristallnacht pogrom, Ernest was arrested and transported to Buchenwald concentration camp. In December, Ernest was released and promised to leave the country within two weeks. He spent the rest of the war in Egypt. Because Hans was a child from a mixed marriage and classified as Geltungsjude, Jewish by law, he was subject to anti-Jewish restrictions beginning in 1935. After eight years of elementary school, 14-year-old Hans became a carpentry apprentice. In January 1945, Hans turned 18 and could no longer be protected by his mother’s Aryan status. On February 14, 1945, he was deported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. As a forced laborer, Hans helped to build an alleged air raid shelter, and tried to sabotage it. On May 8, 1945, the Red Army liberated the camp. In June, Hans returned to Frankfurt and reunited with his mother and sister. They immigrated to the United States on June 6, 1946, and reunited there with his father in 1947.
title: Theresienstadt armband with prisoner number worn by a liberated German Jewish prisoner