Auschwitz Museum has unveiled an incredible discovery found while staff were cleaning out an exhibit – inscriptions and documents hidden in inmate’s shoes.
In one particularly poignant example there is a handwritten inscription, which is still legible, showing that the footwear belonged to Amos Steinberg, who was born in Prague on 26 June 1938.
Shortly after his fourth birthday, Amos was taken to Theresienstadt, just outside Prague, and then in October 1944, aged six, he became one of the 46,000 Jews deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, together with his parents Ludvik and Ida.
A touching #discovery was made during conservation of shoes of child victims of the German Nazi #Auschwitz camp: a handwritten inscription with the name of Amos Steinberg deported from #Theresienstadt Ghetto with his mother & documents in Hungarian: https://t.co/lByKFNXfVc pic.twitter.com/EK3zoYtTYj
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 21, 2020
As well as the young boy’s full name, the inscription shows the mark of the transport and the registration number on the transport list.
“It is likely that both his parents were murdered in the gas chamber after selection,” said Hanna Kubik from the Museum Collections.
“We may presume that Ida was most likely the one who ensured that her child’s shoe was signed. The father was deported in another transport. We know that he was transferred from Auschwitz to Dachau on 10 October 1944. He was liberated in the Kaufering sub-camp.”
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