us-005578-irn84490-irn6789
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Two cylindrical, black painted metal electric motors with rectangular mounts connected to a thick, rectangular, brown wooden board with a beveled edge. The smaller motor, at the front left and parallel to the long side, has vented endcaps and an engraved manufacturer’s plate on top. The mount has a square extension on the right side with 3 electrical input holes. Two yellow, plastic coated wires extend from the holes to a broken, rectangular white ceramic switch base. At the back of the motor there is a circular extension with a perpendicular center rod to support a small metal drive wheel with a grooved edge. A dried and cracked, tan rubber belt runs from the rod back to a large flat, vertical, wooden disc with a grooved edge supported by an L shaped bracket and a long, threaded, horizontal shaft. On the right side, opposite the disc, is a vertical metal bracket supporting a Kilowatt meter: a silver colored metal box with a row of numbers visible through holes on top. The larger motor, at the back and parallel to the short side, has an engraved manufacturer’s plate on top and a hollow, central rod extending from a thick metal plate screwed to both ends. Behind it, two L shaped brackets support a horizontal shaft wrapped in a metal coil. There is a large, full-length crack in the board and paint is flaking throughout.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1943-1944 September 11
has beginning date: 1889-01-01
has end date: 1942-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 556
has or had subject: 1106
has record set type: Item
history: The electric motor was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992 by Jadwiga Petri, the wife of Stefan Petri.
history: Stefan Petri (1899-1986) was born in Poland, which was part of the Russian Empire until the 1917 Russian Revolution. Stefan was an engineer and lived in Wawer, now a suburb of Warsaw, with his wife Janina nee Niewiarowska (1898 - ?), their son Marian (1929-?), and some of Janina’s family members. Stefan was Greek Catholic and his wife was Roman Catholic. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and much of the country was under aerial bombardment for weeks. On September 17, the Soviet Army invaded from the east, and the two occupiers partitioned the country as agreed upon in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed a month earlier. By October, Warsaw was controlled by German forces. The occupation government sought to brutally subjugate the Polish people, and used propaganda to denounce Polish people as filthy, bestial, and subhuman. Stefan, uncertain of what might occur, built a hiding place in the cellar of his home. The access point was hidden in a cabinet in the laundry room. In the fall of 1942, Stefan decided to hide a Jewish family, the Szapiros, even though there were severe penalties, including death, for anyone caught hiding Jews. He had known Kazimierz Kaufman Szapiro (1888 – 1977) and his Swedish wife, Ela Mandelsztam Szapiro (1887 – 1957), both dentists, and their sons, Marek (1917 -2002) a neurosurgeon and Jerzy (1920 -2011), a medical student, before the war and felt he was obligated to provide assistance. They had fled the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jewish population had been segregated in the fall of 1940. From July 22 - September 12, 1942, the Germans carried out mass deportations to Treblinka killing center, murdering around 300,000 Jews. The family escaped with the help of a Polish friend, Irena Wroblewska, and her brother. Irena took them to hide in a tollgate in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, and from there Stefan came late one night and took them to his home. He hid them in the cellar space concealed by the cabinet. The Petri family’s neighbors becam…
identifier: irn6789
is or was included in: us-005578-irn84490
record resource extent: overall: Height: 9.750 inches (24.765 cm) | Width: 13.500 inches (34.29 cm) | Depth: 23.625 inches (60.008 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: AEG electric motor placed on a workbench that concealed one of the hiding places Stefan Petri built in his home in Wawer, Poland. Stefan, his wife, Janina, and their son, Marian, were Polish Catholics. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and began subjugating the Polish people. Uncertain of what might occur, Stefan built a basement hiding place concealed by a cabinet. In mid-1942, the Germans deported 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka killing center. Stefan learned that his Jewish dentist and friend, Dr. Szapiro, his wife Ela, and their adult sons, Jerzy and Marek had escaped from the ghetto, where they had been since the fall of 1940. He felt obligated to save them and decided to hide them in his home, despite the great risk to his family. Neighbors grew suspicious and reported him to the Gestapo for hiding Jews. He was beaten and the home searched twice with dogs, but the hidden space was not discovered. Several people knew of its existence, so in early 1943, Stefan dug out a second space below it. It was accessed through a trap door under a workbench piled with machine parts and tools to make it inconspicuous. Jadwiga, a local shopkeeper, helped supply food for the hidden family. The Szapiros remained hidden for two years inside Stefan's home, until liberation by the Soviet Army on September 11, 1944.
title: Asynchronous motor placed on a workbench used to conceal a Jewish family’s hiding place