Many of the items have been handed over to the families in person, either in Bad Arolsen or in the families’ home countries. The encounters that have taken place within that framework underscore the importance of the ITS’ efforts to track down the relatives. The majority of the items in the possession of the ITS are pocket watches, wristwatches, jewelry, wedding rings, personal documents such as birth certificates, school certificates, identification papers and correspondence, and everyday objects and family photos, all of which are of inestimable value for the families. In all cases, the personal objects have inspired the families to investigate their own histories.
They provide important pointers to blank spots in people’s biographies or prove to be missing puzzle pieces in the reconstruction of persecution histories unknown - or known only in fragments - to date. For many relatives of former victims of persecution, the fact that these objects virtually turn up out of the past after a period of more than seventy years is very surprising and deeply moving. In many cases, people actually remember the objects from their childhood; the pocket watch, for example, that Papa used to pull out of his waistcoat pocket on a Sunday outing. Now - seventy years after the beloved relative’s murder - these objects return to them, sparking childhood memories. The family members’ emotional knowledge and memories of the victims of persecution, whose personal belongings - the few remaining possessions they had with them before being deported to a concentration camp - are waiting for return at the ITS represent a valuable enhancement to the information and documents on the victims of Nazi persecution on file in the ITS archive.
Wanda Różycka-Bilnik with the watch of her father Czesław Bilnik