The
“Warsaw Uprising – Unknown Stories” campaign, organized by the Arolsen Archives, the International Center on Nazi Persecution,
aims to return to families the contents of
around 100 containers of personal belongings still in its possession.
Taken during the Uprising, the items were seized from individuals who later perished in concentration camps.
Containers with the personal belongings of Warsaw residents are part of a collection of 2,500 deposits from World War Two kept in the Arolsen Archives,
the world’s largest archive on the victims and survivors of the Nazi regime.
“These items were taken from the victims and should be returned,” said Floriane Azoulay, the archives’ director.
“As the owners of these items are no longer among us, we are returning them to the relatives, who we are trying to locate, as part of the ‘Stolen-Memory campaign’,” she added.
The organizers of the campaign are calling on organizations, educational institutions, the media, and private citizens to assist in finding the families of the victims.
The ‘Stolen-Memory’ campaign, which began in 2016, has already successfully found
nearly 900 families worldwide, including almost 300 in Poland. As many as
650 of the nearly 2,500 objects that are now awaiting return belonged to Polish citizens, according to the newspaper.
Breaking out on August 1, 1944, the
Warsaw Uprising was one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two,
claiming the lives of over 200,000 people.
