Artifacts from the Holocaust

In this section we focus on artifacts, presented courtesy of the Artifacts Retrieval Department, that can inform us about a specific part of the Holocaust period. These items, which are part of the Yad Vashem collection, are unique: they characterize events that occurred during the Holocaust, and hold emotional value as well. The story of these artifacts is accompanied by points of reference and discussion to be used with students. This page will be updated regularly as the staff at the International School for Holocaust Studies prepares more articles.

The Wooden Duck

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Yehudit's Recipe Book

Yehudit (Aufrichtig) Taube was born in Hungary in 1914 and immigrated to Amsterdam in 1938 where she worked as a nanny for a Jewish family. At the time of the German occupation, she was studying to be a beautician. In this capacity she met the wife of the Hungarian ambassador to the Netherlands, who supplied her with a false passport. Yehudit joined the resistance, distributing forged ration cards...

Strip of Cloth

This strip of cloth was left over from a Nazi flag, and was signed by women prisoners in Ravensbrück. One of the signatories is Hetty Voute.

Shofar (Ram’s Horn) made under perilous conditions in the forced labor camp Skarżysko-Kamienna in Poland in 1943

This Shofar was made in anticipation of Rosh Hashana 5704 (1943) by Moshe (Ben-Dov) Winterter from the city of Piotrkow, Poland. Winterter was an inmate in the Skarzysko-Kamienna camp, a brutal forced labor camp for Jews located in the Poland town of the same name. He worked in the metal workshop of the armaments factory at the camp.

Raphael Uzan (1922-2009), The German Entry into Nabeul, Tunisia, December 1942, acrylic and inks on paper.

Artifacts from North Africa

Courtesy of the Artifacts Department, Yad Vashem Museums Division

This painting is by Raphael Uzan, who was born in 1922. It is entitled, “The German Entry into Nabeul, Tunisia, December 1942”, and was made with acrylic and inks on paper. The painting is part of a series depicting the Germans’ entry into North Africa, and the artist’s internment in the Menzel Temime labor camp. According to Mr. Uzan’s testimony, the occupation of his...

Artifacts Saved by Zizi Lichtenstein's Mother

This piece discusses some of the artifacts that survived the Holocaust in France. They were kept for many years by the mother of Zizi Lichtenstein. Zizi is interviewed in this article. In July 1942, Zizi Lichtenstein, aged 10 was attending school in Paris. He and all other Jews had been instructed to wear the yellow star. Zizi remembers the day well. He spoke about it in his interview.

A Yellow Star of David Button

With the German occupation in 1941, Bulgarian Jews were forced to wear yellow "Stars of David" similar to the artifact presented here. Sonia Koperwaser's uncle made her a pin from the button that she used to wear on her clothes.

Moshe Matza's circumcision kit, which he used in Zakinthos during the war years

Moshe Matza's circumcision kit, used in Zakinthos during the war years

Preserving the traditions of an ancient community

The town of Zakinthos is located on the island of the same name, the westernmost of the Greek islands. From 1482-1797, Zakinthos was under Venetian rule, then British, and since 1864, it has formed part of Greece. The presence of a Jewish community there is documented as far back as the Venetian period. From May 1941 through September 1943, the island was subject to Italian rule. When Italy surrendered...

The Diary of Yitzchak Rudashevski

“The first great tragedy. People are harnessed to bundles which they drag across the pavement. People fall, bundles scatter. Before me a woman bends under her bundle. From the bundle a thin string of rice keeps pouring over the street…I think of nothing: not what I am losing, not what I have just lost, not what is in store for me. I do not see the streets before me, the people passing...

Gloves that Tzipporah knit for Hinda in the ghetto from scraps of wool

Shoe and Mittens of the Toddler Hinda Cohen

IntroductionThis article focuses on the shoe and mittens of the toddler Hinda Cohen, deported to Auschwitz in a children’s aktion (action, or round-up) that occurred in the Kovno Ghetto, on March 27, 1944. Hinda was murdered in Auschwitz.When Hinda was taken from her bed to be deported to Auschwitz, her shoe was left behind. Upon finding it, her father etched the date on the shoe’s...

Remnant of the "Maccabi" flag from the Ahrensdorf "Hachshara" (training farm)

The Flag

On the eve of the deportations to the death camps, a group of youths and their counselors participated in a ceremony. In this ceremony, their Hachshara (training camp) flag was cut into twelve pieces and distributed among the counselors. They swore to reunite in the land of Israel and remake the complete flag from its pieces. Ultimately, only three of the twelve leaders would survive the...

Baby’s eating utensils that arrived together with Henri Hamerslag when Mirjam Waterman transferred him to Hetty Voute at the train station and thence to Katy Mulder

A Coat and Baby Utensils that Belonged to the Children Mirjam and Zvi Hamerslag

Artifacts and Art Created in the Detention Camps in Cyprus

This artifact is a miniature monument or tombstone made in the detention camps in Cyprus as a memorial to Moshe Joselewitz's family who were murdered by the Nazis.
It says, “God will remember the soul of my mother Sarah, my sister Chana, my brother Mordechai and the souls of all my relatives that were killed, burned and choked by the German murderers in the years 1941-1942, may...

Artifacts from the Holocaust

Courtesy of the Artifacts Department, Yad Vashem Museums Division

Preserving the traditions of an ancient community

New Yad Vashem website redirection