Located in what is now eastern Poland, the Sobibor death camp—along with Treblinka and Belzec—was created by the Nazis solely for the purpose of murdering Polish Jewry as efficiently as possible. To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day last week, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) publicized three items discovered on its grounds. JNS reports:
Three pendants inscribed with the sh’ma Yisra’el prayer and depictions of Moses and the Ten Commandments have been discovered in archaeological excavations in the Sobibor extermination camp over the past decade. . . . The metal pendants, each of which differs from the others, are from Lviv in Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic, according to researchers.
“The personal and human aspect of the discovery of these pendants is chilling,” said the IAA’s director, Eli Eskozido. “They represent a thread running between generations of Jews—actually a thick thread, thousands of years old, of prayer and faith. This moving discovery reminds us once again of the importance of settlement in our land and our obligation to reveal the past, to know it, and to learn from it.”
One pendant was found in the archaeological excavations in the remains of the building where victims were undressed before being led to the gas chambers. A second was discovered in the area where victims were undressed. . . . The final piece was discovered next to a mass grave.
More about: Archaeology, Holocaust, Judaism, Sobibor