Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Join thousands of readers who support our workDONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Shoes of Majdanek Prisoners Stolen From Concentration Camp’s Museum

Eight shoes belonging to prisoners at the former Majdanek concentration camp disappeared from an exhibit at the museum there.

The museum on Monday notified police about the theft, which they say likely took place sometime between Nov. 18 and 20.

A museum security guard noticed that the wire separating one of the areas holding the shoes was cut.

“Our employees carefully counted the shoes and found eight of them to be missing,” Agnieszka Kowalczyk-Nowak, a spokeswoman for the museum, told Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper. “It is hard to say, in this case, what is the value of the stolen exhibit material. Much greater is their historical value.”

There is no monitoring in the former barrack where the shoes are displayed.

Lublin police investigating the incident said there were no signs of forced entry, so the theft likely occurred during the day, when museum visitors were present.

Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief

You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.

And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.