Tefillin

On view

Date1944

Dimensionsoverall: 2 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in x 1 in

ClassificationsJudaica

Credit LineGift of Miriam Novitch, Yaffa Eliach Collection donated by the Center for Holocaust Studies

Object number5061.80

Object DescriptionOne small tefillin. These tefillin were found in a transit camp in Mantua, Italy. They were left behind in an attic after a deportation to Auschwitz in 1944.

Collections

Judaica
In the Galleries

Keywords

Camps
Prayer
Defiance-religious and cultural
Tefillin
Ritual
Mantua

NotesMantua camp is the new name for the transit camp in German-occupied Italy, formerly known as Stalag 337. The camp is intended to serve as a transit camp for prisoners captured on the Italian front while awaiting transfer to Germany. As a rule prisoners are here only two or three days, but lately, owing to the bombing of communications and transport, prisoners have been kept two or three weeks. On the day of visit there were 321 British and 95 American prisoners of war in this camp. The camp is situated on the outskirts of Mantua, near the Lake Inferiore. (“The Prisoner of War, April 1945.” International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive, ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22594. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.)

Exhibitions

The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do

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