us-005578-irn714796-irn40042
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Rectangular, brown, leather holder with an exterior tooled line border and stylized decorative designs. A darker leather strap is laced around the edges of the cover. The interior has a pocket on either side with a tooled line border and a plastic insert in the center. A piece of leather reinforces the inside fold.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1940 February
has beginning date: 1943-01-01
has end date: 1946-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 3
has or had identifier: 2
has or had identifier: 4
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
history: The passport cover was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009 by Myra and Vally Kovary, the daughters of Tom T. and Ingrid Neuhaus Kovary.
history: Tom Kovary was born as Tibor Kövári on June 23, 1920, in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Tom’s parents were Olivio and Esther Fuchs Kövári. He joined his one year old brother, Ernö (Ernest), born April 2, 1919. Tom’s parents spoke Esperanto at home and taught this to their children as their mother tongue. Tom and Ernest were the first native Esperanto speakers in the world. Their other native languages were German, Hungarian, and Slovak. The brothers were extremely athletic and belonged to the Bar Kochba Jewish Sports Club. They were national champions in gymnastics and wrestling. Their father, Olivio, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on November, 4, 1890. His parents, Alexander and Josefine Berkovits Kovari, arrived in the US in early 1890. Olivio’s birth was never properly registered. The family returned to their hometown of Galanta in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, because Josephine was ill. She died soon after; Alexander remarried and did not return to the US. Gaining recognition of his status as a US citizen was a consuming passion for Olivio; he finally achieved this recognition in 1949. Olivio tried to emigrate to the United States in the early 1930s, but the United States did not recognize his citizenship. As part of the preparation for their imminent emigration, Olivio pulled the boys out of school, in 1934, to teach them the fur trade. But the US response remained negative. Tom and Ernest returned to school and Tom graduated from a vocational school in Bratislava in 1937. However, his father did officially register their desire to emigrate with the US consulate in 1936, a fact that would aid them in their flight from Czechoslovakia in a few years. On September 2, 1939, Tom and Ernest got into a fight with two Nazi sympathizers on the street in Bratislava. This landed the Nazi sympathizers in the hospital and Tom and Ernest were arrested, along with their father. This was an internationally publicized instance of Jewish resistance; it was even broadcast on the BB…
identifier: irn40042
is or was included in: us-005578-irn714796
record resource extent: overall: Height: 5.750 inches (14.605 cm) | Width: 4.250 inches (10.795 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Wallet and passport cover used by Tom T. Kovary while a soldier in the United States Army from 1943-1946. On September 2, 1939, nineteen year old Tibor Kovari and his twenty year old brother, Erno, were attacked on the street for being Jewish by Nazi sympathizers in Bratislava. They fought back, put their attackers in the hospital, and were arrested, along with their father, Olivio. The incident received such widespread publicity that the authorities advised them to flee for fear of retaliation. They illegally crossed the border into Hungary, where they obtained visas for the US, arriving in New York on February 29, 1940. Both brothers joined the US Army: Tom was in Military Intelligence stateside; Ernest in combat, landing with the infantry on D-Day. He searched for surviving relatives, but found only one cousin, a survivor of Auschwitz death camp.
title: Brown leather wallet with laced edges used by a Czech Jewish refugee during his service in the US Army