Gold Bar

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Accession Number: NEKHC:2015.74

Object: Gold Bar

Physical Description: Bar made of gold, incomplete. No loan available on this item.

Information: This gold bar belonged to Simon Winston, who was born in 1938 in Radzivillov, then Poland, now Ukraine. This gold bar was one of several belonging to Simon's father, made predominantly from the family's jewellery so it could be hidden and used to facilitate their survival during the Holocaust. Some of the gold was used to engineer the family's escape from a Ghetto, and then to support the family in hiding, where they remained in until their liberation by Russian troops in 1945.

Further Information

This gold bar was donated by Simon Winston, along with a brush (2015.75) which was used to hide gold by Simon’s father during the Holocaust. Simon was born in 1938, in Radzivillov which at that time was in Poland, and is now in Ukraine. He lived happily with his family until the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. In 1941 Nazi soldiers arrived in Radivillov, and a ghetto was established. Simon and his family were held there until September 1942, when Simon’s father engineered their escape using some of the gold he had previously hidden. The family then went into hiding, and remained in hiding until just prior to the end of the Second World War when Russian troops liberated the area.

Simon only learned of the gold bars after the Holocaust, when he found this remaining gold bar and asked his father about it. His father told him of his hiding several chunks of gold, and using one in their escape from the Ghetto by bribing a guard. His father also used some of the hidden gold to pay for the family’s hiding places, and support their living.

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