Objects

The presented patch belonged to the markings worn by employees working for the armed forces of the Third Reich (Wehrmacht). The letter "W" embroidered on the patch stands for Wehrmacht. The rectangular patch is made of a fragment of the undyed canvas. The letter "W" is embroidered in the middle of the patch. Chain embroidery, machine-made with black thread. Above the embroidery, there is a visible red stamp. The edges of the fabric have been secured by lining them. Jakub's daughter, Felicja Shop, recalls that even after the end of the war when the family lived in Kraków, anti-Semitic sentiments were shared. When she and her brother were going to Polish school, it happened many times that other children pointed their fingers at them, calling them “dirty Jews”. Years later, the woman admitted that if they had stayed in Poland, she would probably have been a "complex girl". This kind of harassment against children must have contributed to Eda and Jakub Sobel's decision to leave the country with the first possible transport. In Vienna, Jakub opened a pleating shop - a tailor shop where pleats were made on ready-made fabrics using industrial machines. Running the business allowed the family to stabilize in a new place. According to Felicja Shop in Vienna, the family did not experience such overt manifestations of anti-Semitism anymore.

Marta Frączkiewicz