Paul Garai’s Wallet

This wallet, embroidered with the names and birthdays of both his wife and daughter, belonged to Paul Garai. While imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, Paul repeatedly embroidered the leather to maintain hope. Whenever he ran out of thread, he would pull out the stitches and start again.

Maintaining One's Hope in Concentration Camps

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Paul Garai embroidered this wallet with the names and birthdays of both his wife and daughter. (Photo: Peter Berra)

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His faith and this wallet helped Paul survive hoping that he would see his family again. (Photo: Peter Berra)

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Paul repeatedly embroidered the leather to maintain hope. (Photo: Peter Berra)

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Whenever he ran out of thread, he would pull out the stitches and start again. (Photo: Peter Berra)

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Despite the difficulty in doing so, Paul hid this wallet while imprisoned in the Dachau and Bergen-Belsen camps in Germany. (Photo: Peter Berra)

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Paul, his wife Lona and his daughter Veronica. This photograph was taken in 1943, shortly before Paul’s deportation.

Prisoner at Dachau and Bergen-Belsen

Originally from Budapest, Paul Garai was deported to the Dachau and Bergen-Belsen camps in Germany. Many prisoners risked their lives to hide personal objects. His faith and this wallet helped Paul survive hoping that he would see his family again.

After liberation, Paul was reunited with his wife Lona and daughter Veronica in Budapest. The family immigrated to Canada in 1958.

Veronica donated her father’s wallet to the Montreal Holocaust Museum in 2002.

This project is part of the implementation of the Plan culturel numérique du Québec