We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
RENOVATION WORKS AT Auschwitz have turned up spoons, forks, cobbler’s tools and other objects hidden beneath a chimney flue – some that might have been used to plan escapes, a national fund said today.
The objects, which also include knives, hooks, scissors, pieces of leather and parts of shoes, were found last month in block 17 of the main camp, Austria’s National Fund for Victims of National Socialism said.
The fund commissioned the renovation and restoration works in the block at the former concentration camp in Poland in preparation for an exhibition.
“These utensils, kept out of sight of the SS guards, were perhaps used by shoemakers, or to prepare an escape or simply to be able to eat,” fund secretary general Hannah Lessing told AFP.
The items were likely hidden in the chimney because block 17 was used to house manual workers.
“It is no coincidence that a chimney was used as a hiding place in the very building where chimney sweeps were accommodated,” the fund’s structural consultant Johannes Hofmeister said, according to a press release from the fund.
The objects are not expected to be on display at the exhibition, due to open in 2021, but instead have been handed over to the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum for conservation.
One million European Jews died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which Nazi Germany set up in occupied Poland in 1940 and which became Europe’s biggest death camp.
More than 100,000 others including non-Jewish Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and anti-Nazi resistance fighters also died there.
Items scattered around the camp and its surroundings continue to turn up periodically during works.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I’m ready to talk….does the woman ever stop?! For someone who wanted to escape media attention she seems to court publicity like there’s no tomorrow. Life must be tough living in a $17 million mansion waited upon hand and foot….!!!
the news that green cards are introduced is the most frightening news I’ve heard yet. We cant have a two tier society where those who choose not to have the vaccine are discriminated against…….people should be outraged
@Mags Murphy: in israel
@Mags Murphy: Cén fáth? Bíonn ceart ag tíortha an bóthar a thabhairt d’eachtrannaigh, chun an mhuintir dhúchasach a chosaint. Beidh an ceart ag Éirinn chomh maith agus is rud maith é sin!
Why? Countries have the right to turn foreigners away, in order to protect the native population. Ireland will also have that right, and that’s a good thing!
@Mags Murphy: If its 100% medically related as to not being able to get a vaccination I’m sure a type of green card or exemption can be issued no problem. If it’s a case of tin foilery fantasy against it well then tough t!ts, they made they’re bed hard luck.
@Gavin Mckenna: is choosing to not get a relatively novel vaccine a conspiracy theory, ur logic is scary too, since when have u developed such contempt to ur fellowman
@Gavin Mckenna: @Gavin Mckenna: absolutely. Anti-vaxxers, “patriots” etc are always so quick to talk about their freedom to choose but never want to confront the consequences of that choice, or acknowledge that “freedom” also entails social responsibility.
Let’s see how many stick to their guns if the consequence of their choice is that they cant go on that sun holiday!
Dear Meghan. The Amazon river runs for thousands of miles. At some point it runs through areas of the rain forest that are untouched and barely explored. Because of the porous limestone in these areas the river water leaks through the stone and travels deep into the earth and forms underground pools about a mile below the surface. Over thousands of years, small blind transparent fish have lived and evolved in these pools. These fish have never seen the sun or surface and have never been seen by the human eye. These fish care more about this than I do.
have your say