3,000 children’s shoes back on display at Auschwitz after conservation
'They remain the footprints of child victims,' says museum at return of 'sacred' evidence of Nazi war crimes
3,000 shoes belonging to children murdered at Auschwitz have returned to display at the Auschwitz Museum in Poland after more than a year of meticulous conservation work.
In September 2023, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation issued an urgent call to raise half a million dollars for the repair of at-risk children’s shoes.
The International March of the Living organisation, which has been conducting Marches of the Living between the former Auschwitz I and Birkenau sites for 36 years, took on the mission out of commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education and launched an international campaign to raise the necessary funds.
Thousands contributed to the campaign, including businessman and philanthropist Eitan Neishlos, a third-generation Holocaust survivor, who made the initial major donation to kick-start the project. The largest single donation was from Mati Kochavi, creator of the “Eva Stories” project, along with his daughter Maya.
Work began in April 2023, carried out jointly by the conservation laboratories and the collections of the Auschwitz Museum. The main problems faced were damage to the leather, metal corrosion, mechanical damage and the fragility of the shoe leather itself.
Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz Museum, said: “The tragedy of the more than 200,000 children murdered at Auschwitz seems to represent the darkest area of the history of this extermination centre. This is where all the innocence, trust, helplessness, and goodness of children are juxtaposed with the ruthlessness of the German Nazi murderers. This is the apex of crimes of an ideology built on hatred. Very often the only thing left of these children are the shoes. And just as every human step leaves a mark, so these shoes remain today the footprints of child victims.”
Dr. Shmuel Rosenman and Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, chair and president respectively of March of the Living called the project “crucial for preserving the evidence of German crimes during the Holocaust.”
They added that it also has educational importance, “allowing active participation in preserving the memory of children who were brutally murdered. We, who march every year in their memory along the path of death they walked, have been privileged to involve many in this project and ensure the preservation of the children’s shoes for another hundred years.”
Wojciech Soczewica, director general of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation said: “This collaboration has strengthened our bonds and will, hopefully soon, lead to other projects, including the area of education of young generations.”
Holocaust Survivors Naftali Furst and Aryeh Pinsker, who were in the camp as children and participated in the death marches, thanked the public for their involvement in preserving the evidence of Nazi crimes.
Pinsker said: “This is a full circle moment. When I stood in front of the mountain of shoes at the Auschwitz Memorial, holding the crumbling children’s shoes, I thought of my family who were murdered there and of all the innocent children brutally killed by the Germans in the Holocaust. We must preserve their memory forever.”
Furst added: “I want to express my utmost gratitude to everyone who is involved in this sacred project to preserve the memory of the children and ensure that this evidence of Nazi crimes remains forever. I will forever be grateful that I took part in this effort”.
Eitan Neishlos, third-generation Holocaust survivor and philanthropist focused on empowering the future generation, stated: “Preserving the last remaining evidence of the children who were murdered at Auschwitz has even more meaning today, as the Jewish people around the world experience rampant antisemitism. We must all come together to make sure that no one will be able to deny or distort the horrors the Jewish people endured in the Holocaust.”
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