Some 8,000 small and worn-out shoes are all that remain of the over 200,000 Jewish children murdered at the Auschwitz death camp. However, this heartbreaking testimony to the Nazi’s atrocities was in danger of disintegrating. Now, after more than a year of restoration work at Auschwitz’s preservation laboratory, 3,000 out of the 8,000 pairs will return to the display.
In September 2023, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation issued a call to raise $500,000 for the conservation of the shoes of children that were murdered in the concentration camp. The shoes themselves were starting to break down, and their preservation was at risk.
The International March of the Living organization, which has been organizing annual March of the Living events between the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps for 36 years to mark the Jewish victory against the Nazi threat, took on the task to preserve Holocaust remembrance and launched an international fundraising campaign to acquire the necessary funds, allowing as many people as possible to actively participate in preserving the memory of the Holocaust and especially that of the children who were murdered.
The required amount was raised within a few months. Thousands of people contributed to the campaign, including businessman and philanthropist Eitan Neishlos, founder and president of the Neishlos Foundation and a third-generation Holocaust survivor, who donated an initial amount to the project. The Israeli public and others around the world contributed hundreds of thousands of shekels, and businesses such as Israel’s Discount Bank also made significant donations.
Thousands of donations were received, including contributions from autistic children at the Benjamin Rothman Kadoori school, who collected over 20,000 coins, thereby preserving 40 shoes. The largest donation arrived from Mati Kochavi, creator of the "Eva.Stories" project (together with his daughter Maya Kochavi), enabling the preservation project to take place.
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Holocaust survivor Aryeh Pinsker and Eitan Neishlos at the museum
(Photo: Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum)
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum’s expert restoration and preservation team worked on each shoe for several weeks over the past few months. This week, the museum announced the return of 3,000 out of 8,000 children's shoes undergoing the preservation process to the display. The museum hopes to complete the entire project within the next year.
Holocaust survivors Naftali Furst and Aryeh Pinsker, who were in the camp as children and participated in the death marches, arrived last year at the 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.
"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," Naftali Furst said.
Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz Museum, said the shoes are an important way to highlight the memory of the murdered children. "The tragedy of the more than 200,000 children murdered at Auschwitz seems to represent the darkest area of the history of this extermination center. This is where all the innocence, trust, helplessness and goodness of children are juxtaposed with the ruthlessness of the German Nazi murderers.
"This is the apex of crimes of an ideology built on hatred. Very often the only thing left of these children are the shoes. And just as every human step leaves a mark, so these shoes remain today the footprints of child victims.”
Wojciech Soczewica, director general of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation said of the project: “This collaboration has strengthened our bonds and will, hopefully soon, lead to other projects, including the area of education of young generations.
"Saving the shoes of the youngest victims of the crimes of Auschwitz is possible thanks to the financial support of the International March of the Living, Next Generations to Holocaust and Heroism in Israel and other major donors, some of whom decided to stay anonymous. A significant part of the project budget comes from the Foundation Perpetual Fund, providing yet another preservation objective to our unique mission.”
March of the Living Chair Dr. Shmuel Rosenman Chair and President Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, said in a statement that: "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."
Eitan Neishlos, a third-generation Holocaust survivor and philanthropist focused on empowering the future generation, said the project is important to combat Homocaust denialism. "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,” he said.