The discovery in central Poland of hundreds of objects that were likely hidden by their Jewish owners during World War II provided a rare and precious find, officials said Wednesday.
Last month, during the renovation of a house and courtyard, around 400 items were discovered in the city of Lodz, including silver menorahs, hanukkiahs, tableware and everyday items.
“It is likely that the residents who buried these items thought that one day they would come back for them, that they could get them back,” said Lodz deputy mayor Adam Pustelnik.
GERMAN COURT SENTENCES 97-YEAR-OLD WOMAN FOR WORKING AS A NAZI SS SECRETARY IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP
During the renovation of a house and courtyard in Poland, 400 items were found, including silver menorahs and tableware. The recovered objects will be transferred to a museum. A building inspector, left, and an archaeologist pose for a photo with the artifacts in Lodz, Poland, on January 11, 2023.
(AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski)
“These people most likely lost their lives” in the Holocaust, Pustelnik said. “Such stories are really rare and precious and are also a great lesson for all of us.”
The items were packed in a wooden box and wrapped in newspaper, said Krzysztof Hejmanowski, a building inspector for the construction company Warbud, whose team found the hidden treasure.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Authorities said the recovered objects will be transferred to the city’s Archeology Museum. Experts believe that the box was hidden at the beginning of the war.
The address where the objects were found, at 23 Polnocna Street, was located just outside the perimeter of the Litzmannstadt ghetto. The occupying Nazi Germans established the Jewish Quarter in Lodz in February 1940, and until August 1944, it housed some 200,000 Jews from all over Europe. Most died there or in concentration camps.
An official at the Municipal Administration of Investments, Małgorzata Loeffler, said the articles and their story arouse “excitement and deep thought about the fact that we are not alone, that we left something behind.”
