Fabric pouch given to Irene Weiss in Auschwitz
ObjectnummerM1995/002:001
TitelFabric pouch given to Irene Weiss in Auschwitz
BeschrijvingSmall grey fabric pouch made from a scrap of material by Berta Weisz, Auschwitz, and given to Irene Weiss as a gift in Auschwitz. The pouch was sewn into the inside of Irene's camp uniform. She smuggled it through the various concentration camps she was sent to - from Auschwitz to Ravensbruck and later to Neustadt-Glebe.
She described that it contained a photo of her nephew George (son of her sister Helen Fried) who was 10 months old in 1944, and a note from her husband (both items misplaced before the donation).
Irene was working in the Politishe Abteilung (Political Department) of Auschwitz as a secretary (‘Schreiberinnen’) with 60 other girls. As a result she had certain privileges, one of which was that she could receive and send monthly letters to family. In her VHA testimony, Irene mentions that she and fellow female Jewish secretaries in the Political Department received headscarves made from a variety of materials - bed linen, eiderdowns - to cover their shaved heads, and that these were made for them by women working in the sewing workshop in Auschwitz I.
Irene Weiss (nee Berger, widowed Maityn) was born in Slovakia in the village of Ardanovce on 31 October 1914. She was the eldest of five children to Adolf and Cecilia Berger. There were only two Jewish families and growing up she experienced little antisemitism. In February 1942 she married her childhood sweetheart Eugen (Jeno) Maityn.
She was deported to Auschwitz in March 1942, and registered as a number - 2654. Office skills and the German language, learned as a young girl, helped her survive - she worked in the office of the Politishe Abteilung (political department) in Auschwitz, together with her sister Janka (Jana, now Jeanette Nagel), as a secretary, recording the gruesome statistics of the murder of the Hungarian transports. After a process of selection, the majority were murdered in the gas chambers. This earned such secretaries the title “secretaries of death.” Irene recalls that the Hungarian arrivals were instructed to write to their relatives with the address ‘Waldsee’, not Auschwitz, so as to deceive them. One of the other girls working there was Berta Weisz, from Vienna; she gave Irene a fabric pouch as a gift, something that Irene smuggled with her from Auschwitz to Ravensbruck in January 1945, and then in early March 1945, on the ‘death march’ to Neustadt-Glewe, in Mecklenburg, Germany.
After liberation the sisters found out their sister Helen was still alive, but the rest of the family, including Irene’s husband, suffered the same fate as Slovakian Jews in the mass round ups. In 1947 Irene met Maurice Weiss, and they married in 1948. In 1949, they moved to Australia, where Janka was already living.
She described that it contained a photo of her nephew George (son of her sister Helen Fried) who was 10 months old in 1944, and a note from her husband (both items misplaced before the donation).
Irene was working in the Politishe Abteilung (Political Department) of Auschwitz as a secretary (‘Schreiberinnen’) with 60 other girls. As a result she had certain privileges, one of which was that she could receive and send monthly letters to family. In her VHA testimony, Irene mentions that she and fellow female Jewish secretaries in the Political Department received headscarves made from a variety of materials - bed linen, eiderdowns - to cover their shaved heads, and that these were made for them by women working in the sewing workshop in Auschwitz I.
Irene Weiss (nee Berger, widowed Maityn) was born in Slovakia in the village of Ardanovce on 31 October 1914. She was the eldest of five children to Adolf and Cecilia Berger. There were only two Jewish families and growing up she experienced little antisemitism. In February 1942 she married her childhood sweetheart Eugen (Jeno) Maityn.
She was deported to Auschwitz in March 1942, and registered as a number - 2654. Office skills and the German language, learned as a young girl, helped her survive - she worked in the office of the Politishe Abteilung (political department) in Auschwitz, together with her sister Janka (Jana, now Jeanette Nagel), as a secretary, recording the gruesome statistics of the murder of the Hungarian transports. After a process of selection, the majority were murdered in the gas chambers. This earned such secretaries the title “secretaries of death.” Irene recalls that the Hungarian arrivals were instructed to write to their relatives with the address ‘Waldsee’, not Auschwitz, so as to deceive them. One of the other girls working there was Berta Weisz, from Vienna; she gave Irene a fabric pouch as a gift, something that Irene smuggled with her from Auschwitz to Ravensbruck in January 1945, and then in early March 1945, on the ‘death march’ to Neustadt-Glewe, in Mecklenburg, Germany.
After liberation the sisters found out their sister Helen was still alive, but the rest of the family, including Irene’s husband, suffered the same fate as Slovakian Jews in the mass round ups. In 1947 Irene met Maurice Weiss, and they married in 1948. In 1949, they moved to Australia, where Janka was already living.
Vervaardiging plaatsAuschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
Onderwerpconcealed objects, spiritual resistance
Objectnaampouches
Materiaalfibres (fabrics)
Formaat
- width: 85.00 mm
height: 70.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs. Irene Weiss