These round-shaped glasses belonged to Edith Reh (nee Edit Mauer). She managed to hide them inside her closed fist during every selection in various Nazi concentration camps.
Selections in Nazi Concentration Camps
In 1944, Edith Reh was deported to Auschwitz. She had a foot infection and was sent to the camp infirmary. For every selection, the doctors told her to try and look healthy to avoid being sent to the gas chambers. Edith would hide her glasses in her closed fist to reduce her chances of being selected for death. Her foot healed and she was deported to the Bergen-Belsen camp in September 1944. Edith was forced on a death march to the Theresienstadt ghetto and was liberated in May 1945.
After the war, Edith returned home to Hungary and met her future husband, also a Holocaust survivor. They immigrated to Canada with their young child during the Hungarian Revolution.
Edith Reh donated her glasses to the Montreal Holocaust Museum in 1987.
This project is part of the implementation of the Plan culturel numérique du Québec.
