Sydney Jewish Museum Collection | Details

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Actions Displays	jacket Remove from selection Add to selection Object numberM2004/025 Titlejacket DescriptionConcentration camp uniform worn by George Grojnowski, born in Radziejow, Poland, in 1927. From 1940, at the age of 13, he was interned in various ghettos and labour camps, under armed guards. In January 1945, at the age of 18, he was transported by cattle truck from Czestochowa Ghetto to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. He wore this jacket while interned in Buchenwald. At the liquidation of Buchenwald, George was forced on the death march to Theresienstadt, and was liberated there by the Soviet Army on 9 May 1945. In gratitude, he changed the yellow triangle on his uniform to a red triangle. The identification number that has been sewn onto the jacket is 116530. “… We were requested to get rid of our jackets because it was all with lice…. it was something that I can’t explain, I just felt I had to save something to show where I was…. I just knew I had to do it to be able to – even for myself – to remind myself what I went through in the five years I was interned by the Nazis. I was interned when I was thirteen…. I had the foresight to sort of bring something to prove how we were treated and what it means to me to have my uniform, that I was only a number, but as a number I still survived.” Production placeBuchenwald concentration camp Production date circa 1940 Production periodWorld War II (1939-1945) Subjectconcentration camps, survivors, Holocaust Object nameconcentration camp clothing Dimensions width: 480.00 mm height: 620.00 mm Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mr George Grojnowski

Object numberM2004/025

Titlejacket

DescriptionConcentration camp uniform worn by George Grojnowski, born in Radziejow, Poland, in 1927. From 1940, at the age of 13, he was interned in various ghettos and labour camps, under armed guards. In January 1945, at the age of 18, he was transported by cattle truck from Czestochowa Ghetto to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. He wore this jacket while interned in Buchenwald. At the liquidation of Buchenwald, George was forced on the death march to Theresienstadt, and was liberated there by the Soviet Army on 9 May 1945. In gratitude, he changed the yellow triangle on his uniform to a red triangle. The identification number that has been sewn onto the jacket is 116530.

“… We were requested to get rid of our jackets because it was all with lice…. it was something that I can’t explain, I just felt I had to save something to show where I was…. I just knew I had to do it to be able to – even for myself – to remind myself what I went through in the five years I was interned by the Nazis. I was interned when I was thirteen…. I had the foresight to sort of bring something to prove how we were treated and what it means to me to have my uniform, that I was only a number, but as a number I still survived.”

Production placeBuchenwald concentration camp

Production date circa 1940

Production periodWorld War II (1939-1945)

Subjectconcentration camps, survivors, Holocaust

Object nameconcentration camp clothing

Dimensions

Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mr George Grojnowski

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