Every grade school student learns the story of Anne Frank, the young diarist who hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam, only to be discovered and deported to a concentration camp. It’s a gut-wrenching story that’s been told a million times, but now it has a potential new chapter.
Researchers from Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, who were excavating the Nazi-run Sobibór concentration camp in Poland, stumbled upon a pendant (see below). It was thought to be in an area where victims would have been stripped and shorn before being sent to the gas chambers.
According to Yad Vashem, the piece of jewelry likely belonged to 14-year-old Karoline Cohn. Initially deported to a ghetto in Minsk, it’s unclear whether Cohn survived there or perished, with her pendant finding its way to someone else who then died in the gas chambers. But what is clear is that just one other young girl owned a similar pendant: Anne Frank.
Both girls were also born in Frankfurt, Germany, so Yad Vashem believes there might be some family connection between the two young women.
Per Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Yoram Haimi:
“This pendant demonstrates once again the importance of archaeological research of former Nazi death camp sites. The moving story of Karoline Cohn is symbolic of the shared fate of the Jews murdered in the camp. It is important to tell the story, so that we never forget.”
If you know any relatives of Karoline Cohn, or can help assist in the research process, contact Haimi via email: yoramhi@israntique.org.il
—RealClearLife Staff
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