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Gold ring taken by a Jewish youth when he escaped Treblinka death camp

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, United States

Gold ring missing the setting taken by 18 year old Yidl (Eddie) Wajnsztajn from Treblinka death camp where he was forced to sort the belongings of incoming inmates. Yidl, his mother Leah, and 20 year old brother Israel were deported by the Germans to Treblinka from Losice, Poland, on August 22, 1942. The next day, while waiting in line for water, he was shot in the chest by an SS guard. Israel hid him and dressed the wound, then went to get water and never came back. Yidl escaped and returned to Losice. He told the remaining Jews about the horrors he had seen, but no one believed him. His father Asher escaped a labor camp and joined him. They hid in a pigsty, a fishpond, and a dugout in the forest for nearly two years and were almost discovered when the Germans made a last stand against the Soviet Army near their bunker. The area was liberated on July 31, 1944. Yidl was inducted into the Polish Army. After the war's end in May 1945, he and Asher, the only surviving members of their family, decided to leave Poland after an anti-Jewish pogrom in a nearby town. They went to Bad Windsheim displaced persons camp in Germany. Eddie emigrated to the US in July 1949 with his wife, Jean. His father and his new wife joined them not long after.

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  • Title: Gold ring taken by a Jewish youth when he escaped Treblinka death camp
  • Provenance: The ring was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995 by Edward Weinstein.
  • Subject Keywords: Concentration camp escapes--Poland--Treblinka--Biography. Concentration camp inmates--Poland--Treblinka--Biography. Deportees--Poland--Losice--Biography.. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives, Polish. Jewish refugees--Germany--Biography. Jews--Persecutions--Poland--Biography.
  • Type: Jewelry
  • Rights: Permanent Collection
  • External Link: See the full record at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Medium: Finger ring with a thin, narrow, gold shank that widens at the triple ribbed shoulders. It has a raised, circular, silver colored metal bezel setting for a missing center stone. The interior of the shank is engraved R333; 333 may indicate the gold hallmark for 33.3% gold content (8 carat); the R may indicate the place or year.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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