Blanket

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Notes: Woven wool blanket with 3 raw fringed edges and 1 finished edge. The wool is different shades of grey (with some black) , giving the blanket a speckled look. Narrative: One of two blankets distributed to the donor, Marcel Tenenbaum, and his parents, by German guards. Blankets were given to inmates of Malines (Mechelen), a Belgian transit camp for Jews awaiting deportation to camps further east. The Tenenbaums had lived in Brussels since 1935, the year Marcel was born. They went into hiding in 1942, in the attic of a building belonging to the former employer of Marcel's father. In 1944, they were denounced and arrested. They were taken to Malines, but arrived after the last transport to Poland had left. The guards fled, asking the imprisoned Jews to tell the Allies that they had been well treated. The camp was liberated by British forces in September 1944, and the family returned to Brussels. They immigrated to Canada in 1951.