Black and white striped wool tallit katan found postwar by a Polish Jewish man

Tallit katan made from a torn tallit found by Chaim Bornstein in a burned out home near Druja, Poland (Druia, Belarus), circa spring 1945, at the end of World War II. Chaim took the tallit, a prayer shawl, and kept it with him while he was in various displaced persons camps where he married and had a child. After the family emigrated to the United States in 1948, Chaim's wife took the damaged tallit and altered it to make a tallit katan, a smaller tallit that is worn at all times by Orthodox men under their clothes. Chaim Bornstein was born on October 10, 1911, near Krakow, Poland. His family later moved to Druja (Belarus). Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and soon forced the Jews of Druja into a ghetto. Chaim, a skilled watchmaker, repaired watches for the SS authorities. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1943, Chaim escaped to a nearby forest. A Polish family allowed him to stay in their barn for 10 months, but when the situation became too dangerous, Chaim fled. He eventually joined group of Polish partisans and stayed with them until the end of the war in May 1945. After spending time in displaced persons camps, Chaim married and emigrated to the United States in 1948. No restrictions on access