Our job was to sort out the belongings of the people who had been murdered. In one hut a group sorted nothing but shoes; in another only men’s clothing was sorted; in another all women’s; in still another only children’s things. Then there was a hut nicknamed Fressbaracke [gobble barrack] where food just lay piled rotting away, and in yet another hut valuables, jewellery, money and other precious things were sorted.[…]

Daily lorry loads were leaving with these stolen goods

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yad Vashem (Public Domain)

Our party of girls was split among all these groups. I was on nightshift sorting women’s clothing. At the very end of our hut was a big pile, from which we had to make up bundles […]. The clothes had to be folded neatly and then tied. A certain number of bundles had to be made in a given time, and when finished these were taken into another hut where they were stacked for collection. Daily lorry loads were leaving with these stolen goods to be taken into Germany.

When making up bundles, all the pockets had to be emptied, and the worst moment was to discover identification papers, or worse still photographs. I never dared to look at these. How could anyone? A few yards away that very person might be burning at just this minute. […]

All clothing had to be fingered carefully along the seams for hidden jewellery and money. Waiting for the gold, dollars, diamonds and precious stones of every description was the whole Third Reich.