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Jewelry Discovered in Mug at Auschwitz

The Auschwitz Museum discovered a ring and necklace in a secret compartment at the bottom of a mug

by
Jonathan Zalman
May 19, 2016
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On Tuesday the museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau announced in a statement that its staff had found a mug with a double bottom; in it, they said, was “a women’s ring made of gold and a necklace wrapped in a piece of canvas.” Remarkably, this mug is one of more than 12,000 pieces of enameled kitchenware at the museum.

Hanna Kubik of the Memorial Collection said: “During the works to secure the enameled kitchenware located at the main exhibition, it turned out that one of the mugs has a double bottom. It was very well hidden, however, due to the passage of time, the materials underwent gradual degradation, and the second bottom separated from the mug.

“The ring as well as the chain have test properties for gold 583 placed on products produced in Poland in the years 1921-1931.”

It’s incredible—and moving—that we continue to learn about the Holocaust, even though it’s been over 70 years since the end of World War II. And the discovery of jewelry, as is the case with the Auschwitz museum statement, is something we’ve written about previously here at Tablet. For more, read “My Father’s Holocaust Secret” by Itzhak David Goldberg, in which a family heirloom (watch) provides the author with insight into his father’s pre-war life, or “The Immeasurable Value of a Fake Diamond Ring” by Jill Werman Harris, the story of how a ring made of nickel and crystal helped save Jews from the Nazis.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.