Genia Jakobson's Dress
Genia's family came from Smorgonie in the Vilna region. She was deported with her parents Samuel and Sonja and her four brothers to the Kovno Ghetto. According to the Pages of Testimony, her younger brother and sister, Baruch and Nechama, perished in the Kovno Ghetto. Genia, her mother Sonja and sister Frida were deported to the Kunda concentration camp in Estonia, where her mother and sister were murdered. Her father Samuel and brother Elias perished in Estonia in either the Klooga or Vaivara camp. In 1943-44, Genia was sent to Ochsenzoll in Germany, for forced labor in Langenhorn ammunition factory, was deported to Bergen Belsen and returned to Ochsenzoll. After the war she arrived in Sweden where she was offered to exchange her dress, but she chose to keep it as a reminder.
This dress serves as an example of that which is known from the testimonies of women who survived the death marches; female prisoners were ordered to remove a sleeve from their dress and to exchange it with the sleeve from another dress. In this way it was possible to distinguish between the female prisoners and the villagers from the surrounding area.
Yad Vashem Archives
Gift of Genia Jakobson (née Dvorkin), Sweden
