Smithsonian American Women by Smithsonian Institution & Jill Lepore & Victoria Pope & Christine Schrum

Author:Smithsonian Institution & Jill Lepore & Victoria Pope & Christine Schrum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2019-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

Camilla Gottlieb carried documents, like her certificate of release from a concentration camp.

In the black leather valise (left) that she took on her 1946 journey to the United States.

Unpacking History

THE HOLOCAUST TOLD POIGNANTLY THROUGH ONE WOMAN’S POSSESSIONS

WHEN CAMILLA GOTTLIEB (1884–1964) arrived in America in 1946, her concentration camp memories were fresh. Like many Holocaust survivors, she spoke rarely of those nightmare years. Her testimony came after her death, in a leather valise tucked away in the back of a closet, where her grandson Robert Bodansky found it. It contained more than 250 letters and papers that trace her trials, triumphs, and journey. These documents reveal a compelling story of her Jewish heritage, imprisonment in Theresienstadt concentration camp, the death of loved ones, liberation, and her longing to reach her family in the United States.

“My pen cannot describe what I have endured,” Camilla wrote to her daughter, Lony, in October 1945 while waiting to emigrate. “I might be able to tell you about it some other time. It was a God-given miracle that I lived to return here.”

Fearing the growing Nazi anti-Semitism, Lony had fled their home in Vienna in 1938 and settled in Brooklyn. Following liberation, Camilla and Lony assaulted the bureaucratic wall of United States immigration policy. Finally successful, Camilla, carrying her valise, sailed to New York and resumed work as a seamstress and embroiderer, skills that may have improved her chances of survival in Theresienstadt. Her family only fully learned of her Holocaust experience when they poured over the contents of the valise. Now in the Smithsonian collection, Camilla’s possessions tell a story of resilience in the face of horror. ■ —WHY

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