Plundering the Property of Auschwitz Victims...

Plundering the Property of Auschwitz Victims and Utilising Their Bodies.

It is impossible to grasp the enormity of the crimes committed in Auschwitz without taking into account the fact that the SS, acting in the name of the Nazi German state, systematically plundered the property that the victims, mostly Jews, took with them when they were transported for alleged resettlement. These belongings were sorted and prepared for subsequent use in the numerous camp warehouses. Valuables and currency were deposited in the Reich Bank, and clothing of lesser quality was shipped to textile factories as raw material. Dental gold was extracted from the victims and sent to the SS Main Sanitation Office or the bank. Hair removed from the corpses of the victims was also used as raw material in textile factories. Numerous eyewitness accounts state that the ashes and bones of the human corpses burned in the crematoria were also used, after grinding with special mortars, as agricultural fertilizer.

Audiences: secondary-school and university students, teachers.
Languages: Polish, German
Lecturer: Andrzej Strzelecki, Ph.D.

Photo: Auschwitz storage areas (“Kanada I”) for property plundered from the Jewish victims of mass killing.