How to move a museum collection during a pandemic

Anna Hirsh

The plans to redevelop the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) were announced many months ago, and once confirmation was made regarding the JHC temporary site, preparation for the safe relocation of our 20,000 collection items went into full swing. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, a contingency we certainly did not anticipate. Despite the added layers of anxiety and unpredictability from lockdown I had to remain focused yet flexible, and worked hard to ensure that the long litany of tasks was completed properly.

Within this unprecedented historic context, I have packed, documented and custom boxed the majority of objects, held detailed meetings with the conservation team and specialist movers, and managed the collection move. Fragile items that required custom housings included our collection of Charles Aisen sculptures of soldered sheet metal, and ceramic sculptures by Sarah Saaroni and others with their textured surfaces, varying sizes and friable components. Constaze Zikos provided invaluable assistance with his extensive knowledge of materials. JHC volunteer Estelle Rosen was a sewing ‘angel’, making custom cushions to pad out these fragile artworks, as well as for delicate items in the archival collection.

Here are three examples of collection items that demonstrate the complexity of packing, storing and moving our collection:

 Dr Anna Hirsh  Chaim Sztajer’s Treblinka model

The JHC’s rarest and most significant artefact and artwork is the Treblinka model, which was constructed by former Sonderkommando Chaim Sztajer in the mid-1980s, and it has been the centrepiece of the museum since its installation.

The process of specialist treatment and relocating this rare model has been the most challenging, with its sheer size, complexity and differing material requirements for its various components. We approached the conservation experts at the CCMC a few years ago when the rebuilding project was in its nascence. The model itself has been preserved in good condition; its enclosure in a glass case a few years after its installation in the museum was a blessing as this has protected it well. As I write this, the CCMC object conservators have mapped the surface and removed all loose components, which will be treated and stabilised off-site. The base will be divided then custom-crated and relocated to secure, atmospherically controlled art storage until the time finally comes for it to be installed in the new museum, where it will receive conservation treatment in situ. The removed, treated components will then be returned.

 Syringes and needles from the Auschwitz infirmary

An invaluable set of items in the collection is a metal box with various medical items, including glass and metal syringes with separate needles, some medical instruments with traces of dried blood, and some vials of medicine and chemicals. After Auschwitz was liberated, Helen Kasman, prisoner No 46445, took this medical box from the infirmary, where she had worked during her incarceration.

When Helen, who came from Radom, Poland, was deported to Auschwitz, she was recognised by a doctor’s wife, also from Radom, who arranged for Helen to work with her in the infirmary. After liberation, Helen reunited with her husband Yezik, but their infant daughter Gizelle had been murdered. They came to Australia and did not have any other children. After Helen died in 1990, the metal box was found under her bed. Her possessions were left to her brother Moses, and his granddaughter, Melanie Attar, donated the box with its sinister contents to the JHC. The box was on display in the Camps section of the museum for many years, and is visible on the virtual museum. Melanie, a JHC Education Officer, spoke lovingly of her wonderful great aunt, whom she described as exuberant, generous and always immaculately dressed. It is heartbreaking to consider what she had been through and witnessed.

The box with its mixed media contents – particularly the glass objects – was very intricate to prepare for the move. I made sized apertures in ethafoam, and used acid-free tissue, then layers of chemical-free wadding. As I worked with these items, I felt completely overwhelmed with sorrow.

 Gerda Bauer’s boots

Other ‘haunted objects’ that present a distinct resonance are clothes, which definitely take on the imprint of their wearer. We have a few items of clothing, including camp uniforms and the orange dress worn by little Basia Puszet. The trace of the wearer is indelibly imprinted in the pair of boots worn by Gerda Bauer (later Stanley) which retain the physical memory of her feet as she trudged through sinister landscapes of forced labour and concentration camps, including Stutthof and Auschwitz. With their hardy leather construction and soles and heels reinforced with metal, these boots likely saved Gerda’s life. Many prisoners succumbed to frostbite and gangrene in inadequate footwear. The boots have been wrapped and padded in suitable materials that will preserve their state, and they are stored in a conservation grade box (as are all our precious objects).

It has been a difficult process preparing everything, as there are so many variations in the materiality of each object. I have spent a lot of time re-boxing items and padding them out, updating database documentation including taking updated and clear photographs to visually capture various angles of items’ condition prior to the move, as part of compliance.

It has been an arduous yet fascinating task, as this process has facilitated a consolidation of the JHC’s unique collection as well as a planning for future. After we settle into JHC’s temporary zone, I will be welcoming donations, as well as increasing collection promotion and research. Looking forward to the new building keeps us all focused and inspired.

Dr Anna Hirsh is JHC Senior Archivist.