"Silent Witness to the Victims": The Disappearing Shoes at Auschwitz

The pile of shoes at Auschwitz is crumbling: Nearly 80 years after the horrific war, the old items naturally deteriorate. The concern is that without a preservation process, 8,000 pairs of shoes will disintegrate and disappear entirely.

The mountain of shoes is one of the symbols of Auschwitz. The shoes were taken from the women, men, and children who went to their deaths. Often, the shoes are the only silent testimony to the Holocaust victims.

"The shoes are deteriorating, and we don't have the time to wait a few years. They need to be preserved now," says the CEO of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, who has launched a campaign to save the shoes. "Today, only a small part of the shoes is displayed, and most are in storage. After we preserve them all, they will be presented to the public in a new exhibition. Every victim is a tragedy, especially the children. These shoes are material evidences of the crimes committed against them. In the past two years, the preservation work has been very successful because we managed to discover the names of children."

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was established 30 years ago, and its members preserve the surviving artifacts in the most authentic manner. The foundation is responsible for maintaining all the infrastructure in the camp - the buildings, stones, ruins of the gas chambers, crematoriums, and the personal belongings of the prisoners. Among other things, the foundation is responsible for preserving 100,000 shoes, toothbrushes, letters, suitcases, and more.

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