More than 3,000 of the approximately 8,000 shoes belonging to the children murdered in Auschwitz are back on display at the memorial museum following extensive conservation work, the Auschwitz Memorial, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and the International March of the Living announced on Thursday.
The shoes underwent a conservation process in the conservation laboratories of the Auschwitz Museum that lasted over a year.
Before the conservation process, the shoes were at risk of decay. The main problems were damage to the leather in the form of discoloration and corrosion from the metal parts of the shoes, as well as the brittleness of the leather and its delamination.
To address these problems that threaten the preservation of the shoes for future generations, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation launched a call in September 2023 to raise half a million dollars for the children’s shoes conservation process.
The initiative to raise funds came from the International March of the Living organization, which took on this task and launched an international fundraising campaign.
The campaign was able to raise the necessary funds within a few months as thousands of people contributed.
Businessman and philanthropist Eitan Neishlos, a third-generation Holocaust survivor, made the first major contribution to launching the conservation project.
Given the rise of anti-Semitism, remembering the Holocaust is more important than ever
“Preserving the last remaining evidence of the children murdered at Auschwitz is even more important today as Jewish populations around the world face rampant anti-Semitism,” Neishlos said.
“We must all come together to ensure that no one can deny or distort the horrors suffered by the Jewish people in the Holocaust,” he added.
In addition, the general public in Israel and abroad made significant contributions.
“The project to preserve the shoes of the children murdered at Auschwitz is a historical project that is crucial to preserving evidence of German crimes during the Holocaust. It also has educational significance as it allows active participation in preserving the memory of the children brutally murdered,” said Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, Chairman of the March of the Living.
“We, who march each year in their memory along the path of death they walked, have had the honor of involving many people in this project and ensuring the preservation of the children’s shoes for another hundred years,” continued Dr. Rosenman.
The General Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, Wojciech Soczewica, expressed optimism that the cooperation “will hopefully soon lead to further projects, including in the field of education of young generations.”
Holocaust survivors are grateful for the initiative to preserve
Holocaust survivors expressed their reaction and gratitude after the completion of the preservation initiative.
Naftali Furst and Aryeh Pinsker, who were in the Auschwitz camp as children and took part in death marches, came to the Auschwitz conservation laboratory last year to start the project.
“This is where things come full circle. As I stood in front of the shoe mountain at the Auschwitz Memorial, holding the crumbling children’s shoes in my hand, I thought of my family who were murdered there and of all the innocent children who were brutally killed by the Germans in the Holocaust. We must preserve their memory forever,” said Pinsker.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone involved in this sacred project to preserve the memory of the children and to ensure that this evidence of Nazi crimes is preserved forever. I will be forever grateful for my participation in this project,” Furst said.
