Images(3)

Lodz Ghetto cigarette case

1942

Medium/TechniqueBrass, with gilding and blue enamel

DimensionsOverall: 10.5 × 8 × 1.3 cm (4 1/8 × 3 1/8 × 1/2 in.)

Credit LineGift of Paul Linsay with his family in memory of Stephan Linsay (Salomon Lewin)

Accession number2022.20.1

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ClassificationsBoxes

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InscriptionsInside the case: “To our dear commissioner Mr. Asp. S. Lewin In memory from the workers of the working departments: Shoe - department, Sulzfelderstrasse 79 Slipper - department, Sulzfelderstrasse 75 Straw shoe department, Rungestrasse 7 . In admiration of devoted friendship dedicated in Litzmannstadt Ghetto, Purim 194"ProvenanceMarch 1942, given by the workers in Lodz Ghetto to Salomon Lewin (b. 1906 - d. 1981), Lodz, Poland and Cleveland [see note]; 1981, bequeathed by Salomon Lewin, through his brother, Michael Linsday (born Moritz Lewin) to his nephew, Paul Linsay, Newton, MA; 2022, gift of Paul Linsay to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 16, 2022)

NOTE: The cigarette case was a gift to Salomon Lewin, director of the shoe factory in the Lodz Ghetto, by the factory workers. When the Ghetto was liquidated in late 1944, Lewin’s family placed their valuables in a box and buried it in the basement of their house. Following the war, Salomon and his brother Moritz returned to their former home and recovered the box containing the cigarette case.