The Auschwitz Memorial, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, and the International March of the Living announced today that, following more than a year of conservation work at the Auschwitz Museum Conservation Laboratories, over 3,000 of approximately 8,000 shoes belonging to children murdered at German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz have returned to display.
In September 2023, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation issued a call to raise half a million dollars for the conservation of children's shoes, which required conservation and at risk of not being preserved for future generations. The International March of the Living organization, 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.
The required amount was reached within a few months, with thousands contributing to the campaign, including Eitan Neishlos, founder and president of the Neishlos Foundation and a third-generation Holocaust survivor, who made the initial major contribution to kickstart the conservation project. The general public, both in Israel and abroad, contributed thousands of dollars, and businesses such as Discount Bank made significant contributions. The largest single donation, which completed the fundraising project, was generously given by Mati Kochavi, creator of the "Eva.Stories" project, along with his daughter Maya Kochavi.
The conservation project began in April 2023 and is being carried out jointly by the Conservation Laboratories and the Collections of the Auschwitz Museum. The main problems faced by the conservators are: damage to the leather in the form of red and black corrosion caused by the corrosion of the shoes' metal parts; the fragility of the leather and its delamination; corrosion of metal elements and its effect on other materials and mechanical damage to shoes. The conservation work is tailored to address these challenges.
"The project to conserve the shoes of children murdered in Auschwitz is a historic project that is crucial for preserving the evidence of German crimes during the Holocaust. 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", said Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, Chairman of the March of the Living.
Holocaust survivors Naftali Furst and Aryeh Pinsker, who were in the camp as children and participated in the death marches, arrived last year to Auschwitz conservation lab to launch the project were very moved to hear about the progress and thanked the public for their involvement in preserving the evidence of Nazi crimes.
"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," Pinsker said.
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.”
Caroline Haïat
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