Over 3,000 of the approximately 8,000 shoes belonging to children murdered in Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz have returned to display at the site of the memorial museum following an extensive preservation process, the Auschwitz Memorial, Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, and International March of the Living announced on Thursday.
The shoes underwent a preservation process that took over a year of work at the Auschwitz Museum Conservation Laboratories.
Before the preservation process, the shoes were at risk of being unable to survive for future generations. The main issues were damage to the leather in the form of discoloring corrosion caused by the shoes’ metal parts, along with the fragility of the leather and its delamination.
To address these issues that threatened the conservation of the shoes, back in September 2023, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation issued a call to raise half a million dollars for the conversation process of the children’s shoes.
The initiative to raise the funds was able to be done through the International March of the Living organization, which took on the mission and launched an international fundraising campaign.
The campaign allowed the required funds to be reached within a few months, as thousands of people contributed.
Eitan Neishlos, founder and president of the Neishlos Foundation and a third-generation Holocaust survivor, made an initial major contribution to kickstart the conservation project.
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“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,” Neishlos said
“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,” he added.
Furthermore, the general public made significant contributions in Israel and abroad.
“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,” Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, Chairman of the March of the Living, said.
“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,” Dr. Rosenman continued.
Wojciech Soczewica, Director General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, was optimistic that the collaboration “will, hopefully soon, lead to other projects, including the area of education of young generations.”
Holocaust survivors grateful for preservation initiative
Holocaust survivors expressed their response and gratitude following the completion of the conservation initiative.
Naftali Furst and Aryeh Pinsker, who were in the Auschwitz camp as children and participated in death marches, arrived last year at the Auschwitz conservation lab to launch the project.
“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.
“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,” Furst expressed.