Object numberM2017/021:001
DescriptionThis is a black and white photograph donated by Holocaust survivor, Jack Meister. Taken some time between 1946 and 1949 in Switzerland, it depicts Jack sitting in the outdoors, enjoying a cigarette. At the time, Jack was living in Basel at a home for Jewish children orphaned in the Holocaust. He cannot recall exactly where he was at this moment of this photo, but was either in Basel or on an excursion.
Jack was born in Kielce, Poland in 1928. He was 11 years old when the Nazi’s occupation began and his childhood and education ended. In 1941, his family was sent to the Kielce ghetto. As a strong, able bodied 13 year old, Jack was put to work helping on building sites, cleaning sewers and removing headstones from Jewish graves to reuse as footpaths. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1942, Jack was at work; he returned to find his family gone. To this day, he does not know what happened to them.
Jack was transported to Radom labour camp and year later to Auschwitz where he was tattooed with number B488, he was then sent to Buna concentration camp. Surviving a march to Buchenwald in late 1944, Jack was liberated at the camp by American troops in April 1945. Following liberation, he recovered at an orthodox Jewish home for children in Basel, Switzerland. He immigrated to Australia in 1949.
Jack was born in Kielce, Poland in 1928. He was 11 years old when the Nazi’s occupation began and his childhood and education ended. In 1941, his family was sent to the Kielce ghetto. As a strong, able bodied 13 year old, Jack was put to work helping on building sites, cleaning sewers and removing headstones from Jewish graves to reuse as footpaths. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1942, Jack was at work; he returned to find his family gone. To this day, he does not know what happened to them.
Jack was transported to Radom labour camp and year later to Auschwitz where he was tattooed with number B488, he was then sent to Buna concentration camp. Surviving a march to Buchenwald in late 1944, Jack was liberated at the camp by American troops in April 1945. Following liberation, he recovered at an orthodox Jewish home for children in Basel, Switzerland. He immigrated to Australia in 1949.
Production date 1945 - 1949
Subjectloss, Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Buchenwald concentration camp, survival, liberation, immigration, Holocaust
Object namephotographs
Materialphotographic emulsion, paper, paper
Dimensions
- width: 65.00 mm
height: 90.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Jack Meister