Former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of the extermination centers. To preserve the relics and the remains of Auschwitz, the memorial and museum was created in 1947. The collection of the memorial hides tragic stories belonging to over a million people. Thanks to the preservation of the historical items, the researchers still uncover new facts about the camp victims.
The deportees were brutally forced to hand over all their belongings and then immediately put to death or endured slave labour. German Nazis plundered pocket watches, clothes, eyeglasses, jewellery, suitcases and other items of everyday use.
According to the official website auschwitz.org, the Museum collections include:
• about 40 m3 of shoes;
• about 3,800 suitcases, 2,100 of which bear the names of their owners;
• over 12 thousand kitchen utensils;
• 470 prostheses and orthoses;
• 397 striped camp garments;
• 246 tallisim;
• about 4,100 works of art (including about 2 thousand of which were made by prisoners).
The documentation regarding the extermination process was mostly destroyed. Thankfully, in some cases, the prisoners’ items are marked with their personal information, for example, the name and surname of the owner.
Such traces are investigated during the extensive parallel research. Scientists can recreate the family histories and find the connection between the relics. On May 17, the official website of the museum informed that another discovery was made. They found a mark inside a girl’s shoe and it turned out that it belonged to the Czech child Věra Vohryzková.
The researchers discovered that Věra was firstly imprisoned in a ghetto near Prague and then together with her family deported to Auschwitz. According to the research, the investigated shoe is also connected with one of the suitcases from the museum collection. Scientists followed the traces and proved that the suitcase belonged to Věra’s uncle – František Aufrecht.
Such findings are incredibly difficult to examine but help with the general outline of the events that happened years ago. Although they took place in the past, they are still significant for many families.