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Curators Corner

Extraordinary Stories Behind the Objects in Our Collections
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  • From Image to Rescue: The Gavra Mandil Collection

    Curator Teresa Pollin recounts the story of how a single, unusual photograph spared Moshe Mandil’s family from arrest by Germans and how a young Albanian Muslim man ultimately saved their lives.

  • A Cherished Object: Kristine Keren's Green Sweater

    Curator Susan Snyder shares the story behind the donation of a young girl’s green sweater—a gift the girl received from her grandmother and wore while hiding from the Nazis in the sewers of Lvov, Poland, for 14 months.

  • One Survivor, Two Identities: The Kurt Lewin Collection

    Kurt Lewin, son of the chief rabbi of Lvov, survived the Holocaust by hiding as a young monk. As archivist Rebecca Erbelding explains, the collection of documents Lewin donated to the Museum is rare in its ability to show the changing identities of a person before, during, and after being in hiding.

  • Alice Goldberger and the Children of Weir Courtney

    After the Holocaust, the British government provided aid to more than 700 child survivors, several of whom came under the nurturing care of Alice Goldberger at Weir Courtney, a donated English estate. Archivist Rebecca Erbelding shares writings and drawings the children made for Alice, depicting happy scenes from their postwar lives.

  • Morris Troper and the Passengers of the St. Louis

    Curator Susan Snyder discusses the significance of the Museum’s Morris Troper Collection, which documents the efforts of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee European chief to negotiate safe refuge for those who fled the Third Reich aboard the St. Louis in 1939.

  • George Mandel-Mantello and His Mission to Rescue Europe’s Jews

    With the tacit approval and diplomatic authority of the Salvadoran consul in Switzerland, George Mandel-Mantello, a Hungarian Jew, launched an effort to rescue thousands of Jews across the continent. Judy Cohen, director of the Museum’s photo archives, shares his story.