Images(2)

Suitcase

Date1946

ClassificationsLuggage

Credit LineGift of Rena Chernoff, Yaffa Eliach Collection donated by the Center for Holocaust Studies

Object number5004.83

Object DescriptionSmall black suitcase with metal clips. Has leather strips inside to hold items along sides. Hinda Margulies found this suitcase from the Kanada warehouse in Birkenau after its liberation by the Red Army. She took it with her when she left the camp.

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Keywords

Liberation
Expropriation
Camps-death
Auschwitz-Birkenau

NotesAt Auschwitz, a group of prisoners were assigned to collect and sift through the possessions confiscated from prisoners. Valuables were separated and sorted in large warehouses and then transported back to Germany. These warehouses were ironically nicknamed ‘Kanada’, the German spelling of Canada. This was because to the prisoners, Canada was a country that represented wealth, and the warehouses were full of people’s valuables. (“Kanada.” The Holocaust Explained, www.theholocaustexplained.org/kanada/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025. )

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The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do

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