Hand embroidered blouse belonging to Rachel and then Chaya Porus
Gift of Simon and Chaya Palevsky
Id no. 2000.A.91, Textile
Chaya Porus was born in Swieciany, near Vilna, Lithuania. The Porus family joined the underground resistance when it became clear that the occupying Nazi soldiers were systematically killing Jews. Their house was used to store guns and ammunitions.
In April of 1943 the Nazis rounded up remaining Jews in the area, including Chaya?s family, and shot them. Chaya escaped because she was sick with typhus at the time of the shooting and was being cared for by a group of Jewish students who intended to fight the occupying Germans. Several days later Chaya was given a package by a friend of her sister Rachel who had been forced to sort through the clothes of those who had been killed. Inside the package was the blouse, as well as the other items her sister had been carrying. The blouse was worn by Chaya during her time as a partisan fighting in the forest near Vilna.
Discover more about this artifact and other stories from the Museum?s collection in, ?To Life: 36 Stories of Memory and Hope? http://www.pickmanmuseumshop.com/tolif36storo.html.
In April of 1943 the Nazis rounded up remaining Jews in the area, including Chaya?s family, and shot them. Chaya escaped because she was sick with typhus at the time of the shooting and was being cared for by a group of Jewish students who intended to fight the occupying Germans. Several days later Chaya was given a package by a friend of her sister Rachel who had been forced to sort through the clothes of those who had been killed. Inside the package was the blouse, as well as the other items her sister had been carrying. The blouse was worn by Chaya during her time as a partisan fighting in the forest near Vilna.
Discover more about this artifact and other stories from the Museum?s collection in, ?To Life: 36 Stories of Memory and Hope? http://www.pickmanmuseumshop.com/tolif36storo.html.
