Published: 26 January 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
OLGA HORAK DELICATELY HANDLES a black and white striped blanket, which, at first glance, appears unextraordinary — until she explains its origins.
The blanket was woven for SS guards using human hair shaved from Jewish people at Auschwitz, the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Olga inherited it by chance.
"It was three weeks before the end of the war and people who didn't want to be recognised as SS guards who owned these items threw them away. I was lucky to see it and I picked it up," she said.
"I was 29 kilograms at that time. I was desperately sick and I was cold — it was the middle of winter. And I had that blanket until I was repatriated back to my former home."
The blanket is now on display at the Sydney Jewish Museum, where Olga, a 94-year-old Jewish-Australian Holocaust survivor, volunteers.
FULL STORY Sydney Jewish Museum immortalises Holocaust survivor stories using cutting edge 3D technology (ABC)
Photo: From left, Francine Lazarus, Olga Horak and Yvonne Engelman (SJM)
