Minsk Sondergetto Trinket Box, Signed Rosa Kohan, Dated December 21, 1941

This lidded box has a decorative removable top that has weathered the tests of time well. There are two Stars of David around the box, and also carved :

"Sonderghetto Minsk 1941"

and

"Rosa Kohan 21.12.1941"

Size: about 2 and3/4 inches across.

Circa: December 12, 1941.

Provenance: Regency Superior.

Condition: The decorated top is in Very Good Condition with no losses. The box is also in Very Good Condition. The overall condition is much better than you would expect from an object of substantial age that has been displayed/handled/used, usually over the lifetimes of several owners.

Liquidation of Minsk ghetto is one of the most monstrous crimes of Nazism. The Minsk ghetto, one of the biggest in Europe, was opened for 27 months that was unique for the USSR. Each family had bon ore than 1.5 square meters to live in the ghetto - some streets, enclosed by barbed wire.

The so called Sonderghetto in Sukhyaya and Obuvnaya Streets were the last refuge on the way to death for more than 26,000 deportees from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

On June 21, 1943, Himmler ordered to destroy all ghettos in Eastern Belarus (populated by 400,000 people). The speed of murdering of Belarusian Jews increased: only in Białystok 30,000 Jews were killed. The last victims of Holocaust in Belarus were dwellers of the Minsk ghetto: on October 21, 1943, SS soldiers rounded up and transferred to Maly Trostinec.

The tragedy of the Minsk ghetto steps over the bounds of a local event. It stands in the same line with the most monstrous crimes of Nazism against the Jews.

Item ID: A4838