NOVEMBER 2015

Artifact of the month for November 2015

Gold watch
Lea Ganz (1903 – 1942)

Lea Ganz was born in Oslo in 1903 as one of five children to Hans Lauritz (Heimann Lesser) Smith (b. 1877 in Lithuania) and Sara (b. Oster, 1877 in Lithuania). Her father, who had come to Norway in 1893, was a merchant. The family ran a small Fruit Trade in Kristian IVs gate in Oslo. On the 31st of July 1931 Lea married Marcus Ganz (b. 1898 in Lithuania). Their children Charles and Fanny were born in 1932 and 1934. 
In the wake of the arrests of the male Jews on October 26, 1942, Markus managed to flee to Sweden. Leah and the children were arrested by the Norwegian state police on the 26th of November and deported with DS Donau to Stettin and from there to Auschwitz-Birkenau. All three were killed on arrival.

The gold watch, which has belonged to Lea Ganz, is a gift to the museum from Berit Louise Bjørnsen. Her grandmother, who lived in the same apartment block, was given the watch by Lea shortly before the state police reached the apartment in Olaf Schous vei 17 in Oslo.
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