A Gurs inmate embroidered the tablecloth with popular quotes connected to Heidelberg, Germany interspersed with symbols of the city. We presume that the prisoner was deported from Heidelberg to the Gurs camp in France, where she gave the tablecloth to Blanka Sandler a short time before her deportation to Auschwitz. In a note attached to the tablecloth, she wrote that she was about to be sent to an unknown destination and asked Blanka to finish the embroidery.
Blanka Sandler was released from Gurs thanks to her French citizenship. She survived and preserved the tablecloth. After the war, she gave her niece Leah Marcu this gift, which she received in Gurs from a woman whose identity and ultimate fate are unknown.
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Leah Marcu, Jerusalem, Israel