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Scores of shoes found at former Nazi death camp

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 20.10.2015 15:43
Scores of shoes and items of clothing have been found in woodland by Poland's Stutthof Museum on the site of the infamous former Nazi German concentration camp.
Shoes found near the former Nazi German death camp of Stutthof. Photo: PAP/Piotr WittmanShoes found near the former Nazi German death camp of Stutthof. Photo: PAP/Piotr Wittman

“None of us was aware that something of this kind, and in such a quantity, lay beyond the terrain of the museum,” commented Danuta Drywa of the Stutthof Museum, in an interview with the TVN station.

The items are believed to have belonged to camp inmates.

It has been noted that the camp's parameters changed over the almost six years during which it functioned (September 1939 to May 1945).

The camp was set up on territory which prior to World War II had belonged to the Free City of Gdańsk/Danzig jointly administered by Poland and Germany. The Free City was annexed by Hitler before WWI.

The first inmates of the Stutthof camp were members of the Polish intelligentsia. Over the course of the war, about 110,000 people were incarcerated at the camp, where forced labour was carried out.

Typically, new inmates of Nazi concentration camps were stripped of their clothing and possessions on arrival.

The museum estimates that 65,000 inmates died. Besides ethnic Poles and Jews from across Europe, inmates included Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Norwegians, Britons and Roma, among others.

The camp was liberated by the Red Army on 9 May 1945. (nh/rk)

tags: World War 2
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