InventarnummerM2004/006
BeschreibungAluminium spoon, used by the donor Arthur Heimberg during 4½ years of incarceration in Mauthausen and Plaszow concentration camps. On the handle the word Ebensee is engraved, as well as the date 5/V/945 (5 May 1945) and his initials AH. On the obverse side: K L M (Koncentration Lager Mauthausen), with his initials A.H. and his identification number: 84975.
“I have kept this small aluminium spoon – it was the one I ate with at Plaszow concentration camp and later at Mauthausen concentration camp. One German, a kind fellow prisoner at Plaszow, gave me the spoon. It has a hole in the top through which I put a string and tied it around my neck so I wouldn't lose it. It is worn from use and engraved on one side is my name and the camp liberation date in May 1945. On the other side of the spoon is my identity number at Plaszow. I kept the spoon during those years while I was in Plaszow and Mauthausen because if I lost it I would have to use my fingers to eat. I have kept it in the years since then because it holds the memory of that time for me. Here is the story that the spoon holds in my memory, the story of my experience of the war and coming to Australia. I went through a lot, I tell you.”
Arthur Heimberg was born 24 March 1920 in Boryslaw, Poland to Jewish parents, Matilda and Oskar Heimberg. He had three older sisters, Helen, Lotte and Esther. He was 18 in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and had just finished a trade as a toolmaker in Lwow. He returned to Boryslaw to live with his mother and sisters. His middle sister became ill with tuberculosis and died; the older married sister wrote a letter saying she was alright but she was never heard from again. One day his mother and sister were discovered in their hiding place and “were taken to the railway to be shipped off in animal rail wagons.” They were never seen again.
Being young and healthy Arthur was sent to Plaszow, a labour camp in Poland. Later, he was sent to Mauthausen in Austria where he was set to work in the crematorium. “12 hour shifts during which we had to burn the bodies of those who died at the camp. Everyone who did this job knew it would only last for a limited time because after about six months the Germans killed the crematorium workers.” One night while he was working in the crematorium a high-ranking German officer beckoned to him, told him to meet him at the end of his shift the next night and to take the identity number of one of the last people put into the crematorium. The soldier, who Arthur suspects was Jewish, took him to Ebensee to work in a tank factory. He was presented as a non-Jewish prisoner and skilled tradesman who could operate factory machinery. “I worked there for another two weeks or so when the factory was bombed. I was one of the 12 prisoners who survived the bombing. We were trapped in the ruined building for three days before the Americans came.” After recovering in an American hospital, he was sent to a DP camp in Nardo, Italy. An Aunt, living in England, traced him and said she was going to Australia. He was sent to another repatriation camp – at Lecce in southern Italy where he met a Hungarian woman, Lilly, who would become his wife. His Aunt sent the papers for their immigration to Australia. They left from Naples on 7 September 1947, sailed via San Francisco to Australia, arriving in Woolloomooloo in early October 1947. His aunt and cousin met them at the wharf.
At first Lilly found work at the Texta shirt factory in Elizabeth Street and Arthur at a factory in Auburn. He soon got a job as a toolmaker with Marner Engineering and was there for 17 years. His cousin helped him learn English and the technical terms he needed to know as a toolmaker. In the early 1960s they bought a small grocery shop in Bondi, selling milk, bread and biscuits and specialised food items that the predominantly Jewish customers liked. “Lilly had been a singer and entertainer in Europe so while we made a good life here it was very different from our old life. Later Lilly got a small tobacconist kiosk in the city.” “Even though I have had a good life here, I know the time in Mauthausen has taken a toll on my health and my peace of mind. I lost everybody during the war, I will always miss my mother and sisters. The spoon that I had in the camp – it keeps the memory of that time for me.”
Based on an interview by Mary Ann Hamilton for a collaborative project between the Migration Heritage Centre, City of Botany Bay Council and the Sydney Jewish Museum, 2010.
“I have kept this small aluminium spoon – it was the one I ate with at Plaszow concentration camp and later at Mauthausen concentration camp. One German, a kind fellow prisoner at Plaszow, gave me the spoon. It has a hole in the top through which I put a string and tied it around my neck so I wouldn't lose it. It is worn from use and engraved on one side is my name and the camp liberation date in May 1945. On the other side of the spoon is my identity number at Plaszow. I kept the spoon during those years while I was in Plaszow and Mauthausen because if I lost it I would have to use my fingers to eat. I have kept it in the years since then because it holds the memory of that time for me. Here is the story that the spoon holds in my memory, the story of my experience of the war and coming to Australia. I went through a lot, I tell you.”
Arthur Heimberg was born 24 March 1920 in Boryslaw, Poland to Jewish parents, Matilda and Oskar Heimberg. He had three older sisters, Helen, Lotte and Esther. He was 18 in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and had just finished a trade as a toolmaker in Lwow. He returned to Boryslaw to live with his mother and sisters. His middle sister became ill with tuberculosis and died; the older married sister wrote a letter saying she was alright but she was never heard from again. One day his mother and sister were discovered in their hiding place and “were taken to the railway to be shipped off in animal rail wagons.” They were never seen again.
Being young and healthy Arthur was sent to Plaszow, a labour camp in Poland. Later, he was sent to Mauthausen in Austria where he was set to work in the crematorium. “12 hour shifts during which we had to burn the bodies of those who died at the camp. Everyone who did this job knew it would only last for a limited time because after about six months the Germans killed the crematorium workers.” One night while he was working in the crematorium a high-ranking German officer beckoned to him, told him to meet him at the end of his shift the next night and to take the identity number of one of the last people put into the crematorium. The soldier, who Arthur suspects was Jewish, took him to Ebensee to work in a tank factory. He was presented as a non-Jewish prisoner and skilled tradesman who could operate factory machinery. “I worked there for another two weeks or so when the factory was bombed. I was one of the 12 prisoners who survived the bombing. We were trapped in the ruined building for three days before the Americans came.” After recovering in an American hospital, he was sent to a DP camp in Nardo, Italy. An Aunt, living in England, traced him and said she was going to Australia. He was sent to another repatriation camp – at Lecce in southern Italy where he met a Hungarian woman, Lilly, who would become his wife. His Aunt sent the papers for their immigration to Australia. They left from Naples on 7 September 1947, sailed via San Francisco to Australia, arriving in Woolloomooloo in early October 1947. His aunt and cousin met them at the wharf.
At first Lilly found work at the Texta shirt factory in Elizabeth Street and Arthur at a factory in Auburn. He soon got a job as a toolmaker with Marner Engineering and was there for 17 years. His cousin helped him learn English and the technical terms he needed to know as a toolmaker. In the early 1960s they bought a small grocery shop in Bondi, selling milk, bread and biscuits and specialised food items that the predominantly Jewish customers liked. “Lilly had been a singer and entertainer in Europe so while we made a good life here it was very different from our old life. Later Lilly got a small tobacconist kiosk in the city.” “Even though I have had a good life here, I know the time in Mauthausen has taken a toll on my health and my peace of mind. I lost everybody during the war, I will always miss my mother and sisters. The spoon that I had in the camp – it keeps the memory of that time for me.”
Based on an interview by Mary Ann Hamilton for a collaborative project between the Migration Heritage Centre, City of Botany Bay Council and the Sydney Jewish Museum, 2010.
EntstehungsortMauthausen concentration camp
Objektbezeichnungspoons
Materialmetal
Format
- length: 200.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Arthur A. Heimberg