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Used Collonil ski wax brought to the US by a German Jewish refugee

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, United States

Tin of Colloni ski wax brought by Karl Weiler to the United States when he left Nazi Germany in December 1937. Karl lost his position as an assistant judge in March 1933 when the new Nazi government purged the civil service of Jews and passed a law to that effect April 7 with the first Aryan only qualification clause. Karl rejoined the family agricultural firm in Brakel. Anti-Jewish pressures increased and, in May 1936, the firm’s board of directors was forced to sell the business at a loss to a Nazi approved buyer. In December 1937, Karl left for the US. After the war ended in May 1945, he learned that his parents, Fritz and Ella, had been deported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in 1942, then in 1944 to Auschwitz killing center where they were murdered. His sister, Mathilde Fodor, had been deported from Budapest, Hungary, in November 1944 to Lichtenworth concentration camp where she died of starvation. Her husband, Joszi, and son, Karoly, survived.

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  • Title: Used Collonil ski wax brought to the US by a German Jewish refugee
  • Location: Germany--Emigration and immigration--Biography. United States--Emigration and immigration--Biography.
  • Provenance: The ski wax was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Judy Gartner and Susan Oberfeld, the daughters of Carl and Mina Kaufmann Weiler.
  • Subject Keywords: Jewish refugees--United States--Biography. Jews--Germany--History--20th century. Jews--Persecutions--Germany--Biography.
  • Type: Personal Equipment and Supplies
  • Rights: Permanent Collection
  • External Link: See the full record at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Medium: Circular tin container of orange ski wax with a screw-on lid; the wax has been used. The lid exterior is black with a printed green geometric design within a silver border, a silver image of a woman with an eagle on her chest, and a white logo. On the center are the brand name and 6 lines of German text. The silver colored metal sides are corroded and have 2 horizontal indents. The green base has German text. The base underside has the same design as the lid exterior and instructions and manufacturing information in German.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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