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    Artist

  • Various makers

    • Title

  • Personal Items from the Willdorff/Aschkenazy family

  • Physical Description

    5 objects : leather, linen, silk, metal

  • Date

    early 20th century

  • Summary

    2006.20a: set of white leather baby shoes worn by Elfriede Willdorff (née Aschkenazy). The baby shoes were reportedly saved by Elfreide's mother, Betty Aschkenazy, who carried the shoes with her during her time as a refugee in Shanghai, and then to Germany and the U.S.A. The two shoes have brown leather soles and one shoe is stamped "18" on the bottom (4.75 in x 2.25 in)

    2006.20b: White linen handkerchief which was wrapped around the baby shoes at call number 2006.20a. The handkerchief has one corner decorated with lace and a blue, white, and green embroidered flower motif (8.75 in x 8.75 in)

    2006.20c: metal shoe horn from the store of H. Fischel, Tilsit, Deutsche Str. 71, with inscription and design etched on the back (6.25 in x 1.5 in)

    2006.20d: Ancre de Precision brand pocket watch given to Erich Willdorff for his Bar Mitzvah in 1918. The pocket watch can open on the back and shows an engraved dedication to Erich Willdorff, dated November 30, 1918. There is also an engraving inside displaying the model information of the watch, dated 1910 from Brussels (2.5 in x 2 in)

    2006.20e: Linen handkerchief with elaborate embroidered flower design in the middle. The flowers are done in orange, blue, and pink floss. There is a decorative edged border applied to the handkerchief (10.5 in x 11.75 in)

  • Subject

    Clocks and watches

  • Genre

    Embroidery

  • Medium

    Objects; Textiles; Accessories; Clothing and dress; Shoes

  • Part Of

    Willdorff-Mahler Family Collection, AR 25066

  • Accession Number

  • URL

Biographical/Historical Information

Betty Maler was born in Libau (Liepāja), Latvia, on March 12th, 1887, to Chaim and Johanna Maler. Since 1908, Betty worked in Berlin: first as a millinery and later as a fur saleswoman. On July 26th, 1923, Betty married Bernhard Aschkenazy in Berlin, and Bernhard passed away in 1932. On February 26th, 1939, Betty arrived in Shanghai as a refugee. She stayed in Shanghai until 1950 and then shortly returned to Germany in order to immigrate to the U.S.A. in 1951. In the United States, she initially lived with her brother Julius in Pittsburgh, PA.

Elfriede (Effy) Aschkenazy was born on April 17th, 1924, as the only child of Bernhard and Betty Aschkenazy. She went to school in Berlin and immigrated to the U.S.A. sometime between the 1930s and 1950.

Erich Willdorff was born on July 15th, 1905, in Tilsit, then Prussia (today Sovetsk, Russia), to Leopold and Martha (née Fischel) Willdorff. From April to November 1933, Erich worked as an assembler in a factory for clocks, radios and other devices in Berlin. Since 1933, Willdorff ran his own business, selling electronic clocks in Berlin. In 1938, Erich Willdorff immigrated to the U.S.A. Here, he met and married Elfriede Aschkenazy and lived in New York, NY.

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Citation

Various makers: Personal Items from the Willdorff/Aschkenazy family, Leo Baeck Institute, 2006.20a-e.