While their victims perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazis plundered the personal belongings of the dead. In a special section of the Birkenau camp, work details of mainly Jewish women sorted the collected loot. This part of the camp became known as "Canada," sardonically likened to a country known for its riches and abundance.

Day- and night-shift prisoner "commandos" systematically sorted and classified clothing, luggage, blankets, utensils, valuables, and food. Some prisoners sorted shoes, some only men's clothing. They separated suitcases, blankets, and even baby carriages and tossed them into huge piles. In the building known as the "feed barrack," great mounds of foodstuffs such as Hungarian salamis and Dutch cheese became moldy and rotten.

Eager to find money and jewelry, the SS ordered prisoners to squeeze toothpaste into buckets in their search for hidden diamonds. Even such personal items as hair ribbons, watches, eyeglasses, and dentures were collected. Sorted booty was loaded onto trains and trucks and hauled to Germany. Forced to evacuate the camp in early 1945, the Nazis left behind 349,820 men's suits, 836,255 women's outfits, and approximately 38,000 pairs of men's shoes.
Photo: Yad Vashem / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive