Brown plastic lice comb used by a Romanian Jewish woman concentration camp inmate
approximately 1944 May-1945 May
Auschwitz (Concentration camp);
use : Kaiserwald (Concentration camp); Riga (Latvia)
use : Stutthof (Concentration camp); Sztutowo (Poland)
Personal Equipment and Supplies
- Object Type
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Miriam Shelef
Brown plastic lice comb used by Borbala (Babi) Nussbacher while imprisoned at Auschwitz, Riga, Stutthof, Guttau and Neumark concentration camps from May 1944-May 1945. Babi, her husband Josef Polak, her parents, and siblings lived in Cehu Silvaniei, in Transylvania, an area of Romania absorbed in August 1940 by Hungary. Josef was put into a forced labor battalion for the Hungarian Army and sent to Ukraine, where he later perished. In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. Babi and her family were forced into the Szilagysomlyo ghetto in 1944 and deported to Auschwitz in May 1944. Babi’s father and stepmother were killed. Babi was selected for labor and sent to several more camps, including Riga, Stutthof, Guttau, and Neumark. She was liberated in May 1945. She returned to Romania and found that her siblings had survived. She met Denes-Deszo (Duzsi) Herskovits, a survivor from Seini, Romania. They married in 1947 and settled in Romania.
Record last modified: 2018-10-24 14:08:55
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn72310
Also in Denes-Deszo and Borbala Nussbacher Herskovits collection
The collection consists of a safety razor and a photograph relating to the experiences of Denes-Deszo Herskovits, when he was a forced laborer in Hungary and an inmate in Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria, and a lice comb belonging to Borbala (Babi) Nussbacher (later Herskovits), when she was deported from Szilagysomlyo ghetto in Hungarian annexed Romania to Auschwitz, then Riga, Stutthof, Guttau, and Neumark concentration camps.
Rotbart Mond-Extra safety razor with double edge blade used by Denes-Deszo (Duzsi) Herskovits and possibly acquired when he was interned at Ditro, a forced labor camp in Hungary. Duzsi lived in Nagybanya, in Transylvania, an area of Romania absorbed in August 1940 by Hungary. In 1941, Duzsi was conscripted into forced labor for the Hungarian Army and sent to labor camps in Ditro and Csikrakos. At some point in 1944, Duzsi and six friends escaped the labor camp. On February 2, 1945, they were captured by German troops, who had occupied Hungary since March 1944. Duzsi and the others were deported to Gunskirchen concentration camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen in Austria. Duzsi was liberated by the US Army in May and returned to Romania to search for his family. He learned that his mother and three of his siblings had been killed in Auschwitz in June 1944. He married Borbala (Babi) Nussbacher, a survivor from Bobota, Romania, in 1947.
Consists of a photograph of Denes-Deszo "Duzsi" Herskovits in the Ditro forced labor camp in Hungary, dated 1943.