us-005578-irn85553-irn511980
type: RecordSet
archival history: The lab coat was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001 by Ruth Kraemer, the executor of the Estate of Hana Bruml.
biographical history: Hana Müller (Mueller; later Bruml) was born May 30, 1922, to Richard and Hedvika Zappner Müller in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic). Her father was born in 1885 in Chocen, Czech Republic, Austro-Hungary, to Emanuel and Antonia Müller. Richard was a tinsmith and owned a workshop. Her mother was born April 17, 1891, in Prague, to Isidor and Marie Heller Zappner, and had one sister, Gizela, born 1888. Hana’s maternal grandparents, Isidor and Marie (b.1856), lived with her family in the Jewish quarter; Isador died in 1925. The family was prosperous and employed a maid. They spoke Czech and German. Hana attended a Zionist school, then a Czech school. She attended business school for a year and worked as a typist. From 1933, when the Nazi regime came to power in Germany, Prague saw a large influx of Jews fleeing persecution. In September 1938, Germany annexed the Sudetenland border region. In March 1939, Germany annexed the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, which included Prague, which were governed by a Reich Protector. Other regions were absorbed by German allies and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Jews lost their jobs and their property. Hana’s father’s workshop was confiscated. He could not find work and it was difficult to get enough food. Hana tried to leave, but could not get a US visa or German passport. On September 1, Germany invaded neighboring Poland. Jewish men could be conscripted for forced labor at any time. On November 14, 1939, Hana married Rudolf Schiff, b.1919, at City Hall. They got their own room when one of the families boarded at Rudolf’s parent's home was relocated. Hana began working for the Palestine Office, which facilitated emigration to Mandate Palestine. In September 1941, Heydrich, SS Chief of RSHA, became Reich Protector, and prioritized the expulsion of Jews to concentration camps. Jews were required to wear a yellow Star of David badge at all times to make them easy to identify. Transports were announced daily in the papers.…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Woman’s knee-length, white cotton lab coat with a pointed collar and long sleeves with narrow cuffs and 1 large mother-of-pearl button. The full-length front opening has a wide upper placket that tapers toward the bottom. There are 5 finished buttonholes, 4 mother-of-pearl buttons, and thread where a 5th button was sewn. There is a small patch pocket on the left breast and a large patch pocket at each hip. The interior collar has a hanging loop. There are princess seams on the back and an attached, adjustable belt with 2 mother-of-pearl buttons and 2 finished buttonholes. It has a 14 inch center back vent. The coat is very discolored with red-brown stains overall.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: after 1942 August-before 1944 October
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn511980
is or was included in: us-005578-irn85553
record resource extent: overall: Height: 40.375 inches (102.553 cm) | Width: 16.750 inches (42.545 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: White, now stained, lab coat used by Hana Mueller Schiff, while a prisoner in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp where she was a nurse in the infectious disease hospital ward from August 1942 - October 1944. In March 1939, Nazi Germany annexed Prague. Hana, 21, and her husband Rudolf Schiff, 23, were transported on August 10. Hana’s parents were deported to Treblinka killing center in October 1942. Her husband, his parents Richard and Marta, and brother Karel were sent to Auschwitz and killed in December 1943. On October 1, 1944, Hana was deported to Auschwitz, and then sent to Kudowa-Sackisch slave labor camp in Poland where she worked in an airplane factory. She was liberated on May 5, 1945, and returned to Prague. While searching for surviving family members, Hana met Karel Bruml. He had survived Terezin, Auschwitz, Auschwitz III-Monowitz (Buna) and death marches to Gleiwitz, Dora-Mittelbau, and Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberated on April 15. Hana and Karel found few survivors. They left for the United States in 1946, where they married.
title: Woman’s lab coat owned by a Czech Jewish inmate while a nurse in Theresienstadt