Headscarf that Jana Barber received on her 14th birthday, 6 May 1945

Jana (Ilana) Barber's 14th birthday was on 6 May 1945, the day after the Mauthausen camp was liberated. Jana was deported together with her mother Gerta to Auschwitz, from the city of Moravska Ostrava in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. At the selection on their arrival at the camp, Jana was sent to the left (the gas chambers), but survived thanks to the resourcefulness of her mother, who pulled her back to her side. They were both sent to forced labor in the Mauthausen camp. Jana, who had been sick for weeks, received the headscarf and a hardboiled egg for her birthday along with the news of the camp's liberation. Jana recovered, but her mother fell ill a short time after the liberation and died.

Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Ilana Kirshner (Barber), Kfar Saba, Israel