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15.04.2020

Children's tags

Over 11,000 objects were found during archaeological research conducted in the area of ​​the former German Nazi extermination camp in Sobibór. Personal items belonging to the victims of the Holocaust constitute a significant part of this collection. Jews who were deported from the occupied countries of Europe were often told that they would be able to live and work in the East. It is for this reason that they took with them on the long journey the necessities of everyday use: toiletries, medicines, dishes, cutlery, small household appliances. In reality, however, after traveling for several days in crowded trains, entire families were murdered in the gas chambers, with no chance of being saved. The victims' luggage was collected in warehouses, carefully inspected and its contents sorted by prisoners selected for work under the supervision of the camp crew. Money, jewelry, valuable items and useful things that could be sold were shipped to the Reich. Documents, books and photographs were burned in specially designated pits.


Objects that have survived in the earth to this day are only a small part of what was brought to Sobibór. They were accidentally dropped by their owners after leaving the train or hidden by them on purpose. However, they were most often lost by the camp crew, who worked in haste and treated plunder for the benefit of the Reich as one of their duties.


Among all those witnesses of the extermination, which the Sobibór relics undoubtedly are, there are items of special significance that give evidence of an unimaginable crime against humanity – tags with the names of children deported to the camp. Made probably at the request of their parents or guardians, they were to facilitate the identification of children and their places of residence in case of separation during forced resettlements.


Lea Judith de la Penha, born on May 11, 1937, lived with her mother Judith and father David at Graaf Florisstraat 5 I in Amsterdam. During a round-up of Jews in early June 1943, the family was deported to the transit camp in Westerbork and then to the death camp in Sobibór. On the day of her death, Lea was 6 years old.


David (Deddie) Jacob Zak was born on February 23, 1935 in Amsterdam. He lived with his parents, Judith and Simon, at 71 Uiterwaardenstraat. The family was deported to the transit camp in Westerbork, and then to Sobibór, where they died in the gas chamber on June 11, 1943.


Annie Kapper was born on January 9, 1931 in Amsterdam, at 44 IJselstraat. At the age of 12, she was deported to the camp in Westerbork together with her parents Elisabeth and Meijer and six-year-old brother Gerard. The family were murdered in Sobibór on April 2, 1943.


The tragic fate of fourteen-year-old Karoline Cohn is evidenced by a triangular pendant made of silver with the wish of happiness engraved in Hebrew (“mazzal tov”) found near the pathway leading to the gas chamber. The girl was born on July 3, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main. In November 1941 she was deported with her parents Elsa and Richard and sister Gitta to the ghetto in Minsk in present-day Belarus. She was probably sent to Sobibór during the liquidation of the ghetto in September 1943.


In the photograph:


Lea Judith de la Penha’s, Deddie Zak’s, Annie Kapper’s identification tags and Karoline Cohn’s pendant


In the historical photograph: Lea Judith de la Penha (right) with her friend Lies Dijkstra


Image courtesy of Lies Dijkstra / JHM

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  • Children's tags
  • Children's tags
  • Children's tags
  • Children's tags
  • Children's tags
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