Treblinka 2017, Suitcase handle

This suitcase handle is small enough in size that is thought to be potentially from a child’s suitcase, one of several pieces discovered that suggest there were children present in the camp. Other such pieces include a baby’s shoe and the steering wheel of a toy car. The rest of the suitcase, likely to have been leather, has been ripped away for reuse.The treatment of such personal belongings can be assumed to have been similar at Treblinka to how it was at the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau – victims were made to offer up all of their personal artefacts to guards when they arrived at the gates. Their belongings would then be sorted in a region of the camp dubbed the ‘Canada’ region, as the Nazis believed Canada to be a wealthy, bountiful country. Next followed shipment of the items to Germany, to be given to German civilians or used in industry.