Silver kiddush cup with scenes of Lublin entrusted to a Gentile neighbor

Silver engraved kiddush cup given to Zofia Jedrusiak for safekeeping by a Jewish woman in Lublin, Poland, in 1941. She said that Zofia should return the cup to her son if he returned to Poland after the war. This cup had been given to her son on the occasion of his bris, or circumcision, when he was an infant. A kiddush cup is a ceremonial vessel to hold wine for the blessing said at Shabbat and Jewish holidays meals. No one ever returned for the cup, but Zofia's family kept it safe for over fifty years in the hope that someone might return to claim it. No restrictions on access Zofia Jedrusiak lived in Lublin, Poland. She was married to Michal who was a building superintendent. She had a daughter, who married Feliks Sulczyski, the owner of the building on 8 Swietoduska Street in which they lived. Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939; Lublin was occupied on September 18. Almost immediately, Jews were required to register for forced labor service. A ghetto was set up to contain the Jews in early 1940. In October 1941, the Majdanek concentration camp was set up in the city suburbs. One day in 1941, Zofia, who was not Jewish, was sitting on a bench outside the building and a Jewish woman sat down next to her. She gave her a silver Kiddush cup and asked her to keep the cup for her. She said that Zofia should return the cup to her son if he returned to Poland after the war. She told her the cup had been a present for her son on the occasion of his bris, or circumcision, when he was an infant. Zofia later gave the cup to her daughter Halina Dzidka Eckersdorf. They had a daughter Anna, born in 1942. After the war, they moved to Łódź. Economic conditions in Poland were very difficult, but while the family had to sell other valuables for money, they kept the cup. Halina often told her family: this cup does not belong to us; someday someone will come to claim it. Halina died in 2001 and left the cup to her daughter, Anna Eckersdorf-Kalinowska. In September 2002, Anna gave the cup to a friend, Joel Dancyger, who had left Łódź for the United States in 1968.