Album page [LCID: 2004zvxx]
Details
Artifact

Beifeld album page outlining the labor service's roles in the war effort

A page of drawings illustrating the contribution of Jewish Labor Servicemen to the war effort. At the top: "The different platoons work hard at the battle front and in the no man's land [between the armies]. They actively participate in the fighting. They carry ammunition to the Hungarian soldiers." In the middle: "They defuse land mines. They bury the dead, including those that had been left unburied from the winter campaign. They carry soldiers wounded on the front lines to safety." At the bottom: "For example, [Jewish Labor Serviceman] Herman Brand carried 35 wounded soldiers from the barbed wire barricades and from no man's land on May 30, 1942 during the Afanasyevica skirmish. Among those he carried was Gyula Gercsi-Suta, age 35, a lieutenant, who succumbed to his wounds at the field hospital that evening." [Photograph #58014]


Critical Thinking Questions

What was the context of the Holocaust and World War II when Beifeld created the illustrations that were later assembled into the album?

What questions does this album raise for you?

What other source materials might be helpful to provide more historical context for this album? What aspects of the history might these other source materials help reveal?


Tags


  • Courtesy of the estate of George Byfield
  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum

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