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[nb-NO]Object number[nb-NO]M2007/068:023
[nb-NO]Description[nb-NO]Tan leather suitcase with keys, used by Ivan Visontay when he immigrated to Australia in 1952. With his father, Paul Weiszmann, Ivan travelled from Hungary through Austria to Italy, where they departed from Naples on the Trieste. They arrived in Sydney on 1 April 1952. A fragment of the label from the ship Trieste and Napoli, is on the suitcase.
This suitcase is part of a collection of objects and documents related to the family of Holocaust survivor Ivan Visontay. Ivan was born on 24 November 1929 in Gyongyos, a small town in Hungary, where his family ran a successful upmarket delicatessen. When war came to Hungary, his father Paul was sent away to forced labour camps. Ivan and his mother Sara were forced to wear the yellow star, lost their business, and then in May 1944, were moved into a ghetto where they lived with 16 other people in one room.
In June 1944, when Ivan was still only 14 years old, they were deported to Auschwitz. Sara was shot upon arrival, and her body was discovered days later by Ivan when he was sent with a work group to scavenge for valuables. Ivan survived Auschwitz through the selflessness of a Czechoslovakian doctor in the camp hospital, who stole food and medicine to treat Ivan’s debilitating scurvy and later secured him a coveted job in the German barracks darning socks. There he received extra rations and was more protected from the bitter cold. At the end of 1944, Ivan was marched to Blechhammer camp as the Germans began retreating west from the onslaught of the Russian army. He was finally liberated there in January of 1945.
After the war Ivan was repatriated back to Gyongyos where he reunited with his father. They tried to resume their former life, but soon looked to start a new life elsewhere. They both arrived in Sydney on 1 April 1952.
This suitcase is part of a collection of objects and documents related to the family of Holocaust survivor Ivan Visontay. Ivan was born on 24 November 1929 in Gyongyos, a small town in Hungary, where his family ran a successful upmarket delicatessen. When war came to Hungary, his father Paul was sent away to forced labour camps. Ivan and his mother Sara were forced to wear the yellow star, lost their business, and then in May 1944, were moved into a ghetto where they lived with 16 other people in one room.
In June 1944, when Ivan was still only 14 years old, they were deported to Auschwitz. Sara was shot upon arrival, and her body was discovered days later by Ivan when he was sent with a work group to scavenge for valuables. Ivan survived Auschwitz through the selflessness of a Czechoslovakian doctor in the camp hospital, who stole food and medicine to treat Ivan’s debilitating scurvy and later secured him a coveted job in the German barracks darning socks. There he received extra rations and was more protected from the bitter cold. At the end of 1944, Ivan was marched to Blechhammer camp as the Germans began retreating west from the onslaught of the Russian army. He was finally liberated there in January of 1945.
After the war Ivan was repatriated back to Gyongyos where he reunited with his father. They tried to resume their former life, but soon looked to start a new life elsewhere. They both arrived in Sydney on 1 April 1952.
[nb-NO]Production place[nb-NO]Hungary
[nb-NO]Date[nb-NO] 1952 - 1952
[nb-NO]Subject[nb-NO]migration, survivors, voyages & travels, water transport, post-World War II
[nb-NO]Object name[nb-NO]suitcases
[nb-NO]Material[nb-NO]leather, fibres (fabrics), metal, paper
[nb-NO]Dimensions[nb-NO]
- width: 640.00 mm
height: 375.00 mm
depth: 180.00 mm
[nb-NO]Credit line[nb-NO]Sydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mr Ivan R Visontay
[nb-NO]Documentation[nb-NO]
Boutique300001629
Boutique300001629