Aluminum food container lid used by a Hungarian Jewish family on the Kasztner train

Metal food container lid used by Bela, Anna, and Judit Gondos when they were transported from Budapest, Hungary, to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on the Kasztner train in June 1944. The family often hiked at Svabhegy, a hill outside Budapest, and used the container with the now missing base for their picnics. Jews were increasingly persecuted by the Nazi-influenced Hungarian regime. Bela worked on 2 or 3 forced labor battalions until released in 1942 because he was a physician. On March 19, 1944, Germany invaded Hungary and the authorities prepared to deport all the Jews from Hungary to concentration camps. In mid-May, Bela heard about the Kasztner train, negotiated by Rezso Kasztner of the Relief and Rescue Committee, Hungarian Zionist Association, to get the German SS to take money to release Jews to neutral territory. Bela and his family were selected because of Bela’s Zionist ties. Kasztner failed to raise sufficient funds and the train was sent to Bergen-Belsen, arriving on July 8. After ransom money was raised by Jewish aid organizations, the prisoners were sent from Bergen-Belsen on December 7, 1944. Bela, Anna, and Judit emigrated to the United States in 1946.