After being hidden for nearly 70 years, a gold ring and necklace have been recovered at Auschwitz.
Curators at the Auschwitz Museum in Poland announced that jewelry was recovered Tuesday while doing maintenance work on its collection of kitchenware, BBC reports. They also recovered an enamel mug, according to a news release from the museum.
"During the works to secure the enameled kitchenware located at the main exhibition, it turned out that one of the mugs has a double bottom. It was very well hidden; however, due to the passage of time, the materials underwent gradual degradation, and the second bottom separated from the mug," Hanna Kubik, of the Memorial Collections, said in the release."Under it, among others was a women's ring made of gold and a necklace wrapped in a piece of canvas. The ring as well as the chain have test properties for gold 583 placed on products produced in Poland in the years 1921-1931. It is the head of a knight with the number three on the right side."
BBC reports the likelihood that they would find the jewelry's owner was slim "because there are no traces left on the objects to help identify them." They added that the mug is "one of 12,000 cups, pots, bowls, kettles, and jugs" that are being held by the museum after being looted from the luggage of people at the camp by German forces.
Dr. Piotr Cywinski mentioned in the release that many survivors spoke about hiding items in their accounts. "The hiding of valuable items - repeatedly mentioned in the accounts of survivors, and which was the reason for ripping and careful search of clothes and suitcases in the warehouse for looted items – so-called 'Kanada' – proves on the one hand to the awareness of the victims as to the robbery nature of the deportation, but on the other hand it shows that the Jewish families constantly had a ray of hope that these items will be required for their existence," he said.
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