The Institute of National Remembrance donated over 200 items to the Museum in Treblinka – the former German Nazi death camp and labor camp from 1941-1944. They include a shot spoon, personal items, coins, medallions, rifle shells – mementoes of the murdered prisoners of the Treblinka I German labor camp.

The mementoes of the prisoners were found as part of an investigation conducted by the departmental Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Szczecin in the former German labor camp Treblinka I.

During the ceremonial donation of the items, the head of the Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, prosecutor Andrzej Pozorski, said that the death pit had been discovered in the investigation. During the exhumation, the specialists found various items belonging to the prisoners including utility items.

The Treblinka I Penal Labor Camp operated from the summer of 1941 to the end of July 1944. The German squad counted about 20 people assisted by the guards, mostly Ukrainians, in the number of about 100 people. In total, more than 20,000 prisoners were held in the camp. 10,000 died or were murdered.

In the middle of 1942, the Treblinka II extermination camp was established next to the Treblinka I. According to the data of the Museum, the Germans murdered over 800,000 Jews in that place.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński