us-005578-irn96474-irn554002
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Floral tapestry purse with a silver colored metal clasp and handle and light brown cloth lining.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
date: approximately 1920
has beginning date: 1942-01-01
has end date: 1942-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Item
history: The handbag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Elizabeth Lusthaus Strassburger.
history: Elzbieta Lusthaus was born on May 15, 1938, in Krakow, Poland to Edmund and Helena (Amkraut) Lusthaus. Edmund was born in Brzozow on August 2, 1899, and attended medical school at Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov. Helena was born in Przemysl on June 8, 1911, but grew up in Sanok and worked as an assistant pharmacist. Edmund and Helena married on May 17, 1936, and settled in the resort town of Iwonicz. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Edmund was drafted into the Polish army. At the time of the invasion, Edmund was visiting his parents in Stryj which soon came under Soviet control after that country invaded Poland. Edmund was deported to a prisoner of war labor camp in Novosibirsk, Siberia. In November, Helena and her baby daughter went to Tarnow to live with Helena's mother, Sophie Lieberman Schiff. Helena's father, Isak Amkraut, was divorced from Sophie and lived in the Netherlands, where he owned a diamond cutting business. In the initial stages of the war, Isak was able to support Helena by sending her food and diamonds. In 1941, they were relocated into the Tarnow ghetto. Helena was assigned as forced labor as a seamstress in a German Army uniform workshop outside the ghetto. In June 1942, police rounding up Jews for deportation came to the apartment. Sophie told Elzbieta to hide under the bed, but Sophie was arrested and deported to Belzec killing center. Helena had been safe from earlier deportation actions, but now, afraid for Elzbieta, she went into hiding. She was able to buy false identification papers for Elzbieta and herself and, a few days later, they fled Tarnow using the false identities of Maria and Barbara Stachura, Polish Catholics. Christian friends of her mother had found a family willing to hide them for money. They settled in Milanowek, where they lived with Kazimierz and Genowefa Bandyrowa and their two daughters, Wisia and Hanka. The two girls took care of Elzbieta, known as Basia. During police inspections, they would smear h…
identifier: irn554002
is or was included in: us-005578-irn96474
record resource extent: overall: Height: 7.625 inches (19.368 cm) | Width: 7.875 inches (20.003 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Floral tapestry purse that was owned by Zofia (Sophie) Lieberman Schiff, and saved by her granddaughter Elzbieta Lusthaus. When Poland was invaded in September 1939, one year old Elzbieta and her mother Helena were separated from her father Edmund, a doctor in the Polish Army. Elzbieta and Helena left Krakow to live with Zofia in Tarnow. Helena did forced labor as a seamstress. On June 11, 1942, German troops came to the house searching for Jews to deport to concentration camps. Four year old Elzbieta hid, but her grandmother was taken by and sent to Belzec killing center. Elzbieta and her mother fled Tarnow and survived with false identities as Polish Catholics, sheltered by a Catholic family in Milanowek. After the area was liberated in January 1945, Helena had them smuggled in May into Czechoslovakia. The family was reunited after a doctor recognized Helena in a displaced persons camp in Munich. He told her Edmund was alive and Edmund sent an ambulance to bring them to Italy. He was released from Soviet prison in 1941 and joined the volunteer Polish Army of the East, which became the 2nd Polish Corps, British Army. The family emigrated to England in December 1946.
title: Floral tapestry purse saved by a hidden child