NOVEMBER 2016

Artifact of the month for November 2016

Bar Mitzvah cup 
Herman Jelo (1908 – 1943)

Herman Jelo was born on March 1st 1908 in Oslo as one of five children to Isaac Leib Jelaawitz (b. 1882 in Lithuania) and Esther (b. Scheer, 1886 in Lithuania). His father Isaac ran a manufacture store on the east side of Oslo. On the 26th of March 1921 Herman celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. Shortly thereafter he started as a barber apprentice at a local hair salon. After completing the apprenticeship, he established his own hairdresser and barber shop, first in Lakkegata 15, then in Kirkeveien 48 at Majorstua in Oslo. In 1939 Herman changed his surname from Jelaawitz to Jelo.

Herman was unmarried and living at his parents’ house when he was arrested by the Norwegian State Police on the 26th of October 1942. He was transferred to Berg prison camp outside of Tønsberg where he remained until he was deported one month later to Stettin and from there to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  
Here he perished in February 1943. All of Herman's immediate family members were exterminated in Auschwitz: The parents Isaac and Esther; brother David; sisters Dora, Fanny and Sara (married Glikman) and grandmother Olga Scheer.

Herman Jelo’s Bar Mitzvah cup is a gift to Oslo Jewish Museum from Anne Rita Midttun
Herman Jelo’s Bar Mitzvah cup is a gift to Oslo Jewish Museum from Anne Rita Midttun
Photo: Herman Jelaawitz outside the family’s apartment in Helgesens gate 5 in Oslo, ca. 1920
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