Holocaust
These items are part of our modern Jewish history. They are important because they survived the war and help us to remember people that did not. Fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors are still alive and artifacts help us to remember their stories....and that we don't forget!
Holocaust Railroad Spike
Treblinka
Amy E.
The spike was awarded to my grandmother in 1992 for her persevering work at the Florida Holocaust Museum, one of the largest Holocaust museums in the U.S.A. The spike held down the railroad track which took the boxcars in Germany that took Jews, by the hundreds, to concentration camps.
The spike held down the railroad that took the boxcars to the concentration camps. That is what is the signifigance to this artifact.
Handkerchief
Vienna, Austria
Lisl Schick
My nana left on the Kinder Transport without her parents and was only allowed to take on small suitcase with her. Her mother packed as many clothes and other objects as possible, and embroidered my nana's initials on everything, including the handkerchief. My nana saved it for 70 years.
It is significant to Jewish Heritage because my nana survived the Holocaust and was able to keep the handkerchief through her experience.