Commemorative coin with a swastika and Star of David owned by a young Jewish girl who fled Nazi Germany 2005.464.1 front

Commemorative coin issued to encourage immigration that belonged to 8 year old Mara Vishniac, a young Jewish girl who left Nazi Germany with her family in 1938-1940. The coin was struck in 1934 to memorialize the journey of Baron von Mildenstein, a Nazi party member, to Palestine. The trip resulted in a pro-Zionist report encouraging Jewish emigration, published in the nationalist newspaper, Der Angriff. Mara lived in Berlin with her parents, Roman and Luta, and brother, Wolf. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Jews experienced increasingly harsh persecution. Following the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, 1938, Mara, 12, and her brother, 16, were sent to live with relatives in Riga, Latvia. A few months later, Mara was sent to a home for refugee children in Sweden. In 1940, Mara, her mother, and brother moved to Stockholm and obtained visas to travel to the United States. Her father was arrested as an enemy alien in German occupied Paris and imprisoned. He escaped after three months and, with the aid of the JDC, which had sponsored his photography, he obtained a visa to the US. The family reunited in Lisbon, Portugal, and left on the SS Siboney, arriving in New York on December 31, 1940.

Commemorative coin issued to encourage immigration that belonged to 8 year old Mara Vishniac, a young Jewish girl who left Nazi Germany with her family in 1938-1940. The coin was struck in 1934 to memorialize the journey of Baron von Mildenstein, a Nazi party member, to Palestine. The trip resulted in a pro-Zionist report encouraging Jewish emigration, published in the nationalist newspaper, Der Angriff. Mara lived in Berlin with her parents, Roman and Luta, and brother, Wolf. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Jews experienced increasingly harsh persecution. Following the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, 1938, Mara, 12, and her brother, 16, were sent to live with relatives in Riga, Latvia. A few months later, Mara was sent to a home for refugee children in Sweden. In 1940, Mara, her mother, and brother moved to Stockholm and obtained visas to travel to the United States. Her father was arrested as an enemy alien in German occupied Paris and imprisoned. He escaped after three months and, with the aid of the JDC, which had sponsored his photography, he obtained a visa to the US. The family reunited in Lisbon, Portugal, and left on the SS Siboney, arriving in New York on December 31, 1940.