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Auschwitz Museum Staffers Discover Hidden Jewelry
The jewelry of an Auschwitz deportee hidden in a double-bottom mug evaded detection by Nazis and historians for over 70 years.
An x-ray displaying the manner in which jewelry was hidden in a double-bottom enamel mug. (Photo credit: www.auschwitz.org)
Oświęcim, Poland--Staff at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum found a gold ring and a necklace with a gold chain wrapped in canvas and hidden in an enamel mug with a double bottom, jewels that went undiscovered for more than 70 years.
The Collections of the Memorial contain items taken by the Germans from Auschwitz-Birkenau deportees; it houses more than 12,000 pieces of enamel kitchenware alone.
“The hiding of valuable items--repeatedly mentioned in the accounts of survivors, and which was the reason for ripping and careful search of clothes and suitcases in the warehouse for looted items--proves, on the one hand, the awareness of the victims as to the robbery nature of the deportation, but on the other hand it shows that the Jewish families constantly had a ray of hope that these items will be required for their existence,” said museum director Piotr M. A. Cywiński.
Tests conducted indicate the ring and necklace contain gold from jewelry produced in Poland between 1921 and 1931. The items will be kept in the Collections of the Museum in a manner that will illustrate the way they were hidden by their owner.
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