Poland – Eight Holocaust victims shoes were stolen recently from a former concentration camp now turned museum in Poland.
According to reports, the theft took place between November 18 and 20 at the Majdanek Museum, a concentration camp built by the Nazis in 1941 but was abandoned in 1944. A museum personnel was the one who discovered the theft after seeing that the wire net placed over the display of about 56,000 Holocaust victims shoes sported a cut.
The recent theft was not a first time for the Majdanek Museum. Previous items on display had been stolen from it as well. Just last year, cap of a Jewish prisoner was taken. Eventually, the FBI was able to recover the item after the thief attempted to sell it online.
In 1989, the museum was also robbed of the victim’s ashes from its crematorium. These were never recovered.
A museum official stated that the eight Holocaust victims shoes was a ‘great loss’ to the museum considering they are historical objects. He pointed out that the display of the 56,000 Holocaust victims shoes was aimed at showing the great extent of the war crimes committed by the Nazis during the Second World War.
In history, many Jews were interred in the concentration camp now turned museum during the WWII-era and over 78,000 individuals were sent to its gas chambers.
Holocaust victims shoes exhibit can also be found in Auschwitz and other sites which commemorate the Holocaust.