Identification Badge
Object numberM1991/012
TitleIdentification Badge
DescriptionCloth badge belonging to Golda Fersztenfeld that identified her as a Jewish political prisoner in the Gross-Rosen concentration camp system. The badge comprises a rectangular bar of cream coloured fabric with the number 21989 handstitched in red thread, above a red inverted triangle topped with a yellow bar. Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily triangles, were part of the system of identification used in many camps in German-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners had been placed there. A red inverted triangle signified a political prisoner, while a Jewish political prisoner was identified by a yellow triangle and a red triangle forming a Star of David. Golda’s badge with red triangle and yellow bar was a variation of this, which, by late 1944, was more common as a means of saving cloth.
Golda Goldstein (nee Fersztenfeld) was born 3 May 1903 in Bedzin, Poland. Before the war she was a dressmaker. Golda was forced into the ghetto in Bedzin in December 1940. In July 1942 she was deported to Parschnitz (Trautenau), north-east of Prague, where she was put to work in a textile factory. The treatment of inmates by the wardresses and civilian personnel in the factory was brutal, with reports of terrible beatings and torture. It is likely that Golda was issued with this prisoner number after March 1944, when Trautenau became a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. As a textile worker, it is possible that she was forced to make the badge herself, which would explain its rough, hand-stitched appearance.
On 2 October 1944, Golda was transferred to the subcamp Oberaltstadt, along with 791 other women from Trautenau. She worked in the Etrich spinning mill. She was liberated there by the Red Army on 9 May 1945. She spent months after the war travelling in Bavaria in search of family. She eventually found her nephew Alex, her only surviving family. Alex had been in Feldafing DP camp in Germany and they returned there together in October 1945. Golda stayed in the DP camp for around two years before moving to France. In Paris she met her husband, Szulim Goldstein, also a Polish survivor. Together they immigrated to Australia around 1950.
Golda Goldstein (nee Fersztenfeld) was born 3 May 1903 in Bedzin, Poland. Before the war she was a dressmaker. Golda was forced into the ghetto in Bedzin in December 1940. In July 1942 she was deported to Parschnitz (Trautenau), north-east of Prague, where she was put to work in a textile factory. The treatment of inmates by the wardresses and civilian personnel in the factory was brutal, with reports of terrible beatings and torture. It is likely that Golda was issued with this prisoner number after March 1944, when Trautenau became a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. As a textile worker, it is possible that she was forced to make the badge herself, which would explain its rough, hand-stitched appearance.
On 2 October 1944, Golda was transferred to the subcamp Oberaltstadt, along with 791 other women from Trautenau. She worked in the Etrich spinning mill. She was liberated there by the Red Army on 9 May 1945. She spent months after the war travelling in Bavaria in search of family. She eventually found her nephew Alex, her only surviving family. Alex had been in Feldafing DP camp in Germany and they returned there together in October 1945. Golda stayed in the DP camp for around two years before moving to France. In Paris she met her husband, Szulim Goldstein, also a Polish survivor. Together they immigrated to Australia around 1950.
Object nameidentification numbers
Materialfibres (fabrics)
Dimensions
- whole width: 101.00 mm
height: 131.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Golda Goldstein