Stories Series 5 THE STORY OF CLOTHING SORTER CANADA-COMMANDO

The CANADA COMMANDO- a work group that had to sort victims’ belongings brought to Auschwitz. The Canada complex was situated very close to 4 gas chambers and crematoria. My Mother told me: “first we took the showers, then my head was shaved bold- it was a very bad feeling along with the fact that we left our clothes and had to put on a striped gown with no underwear… It was very cold in Poland, constantly raining with mud everywhere; after they tattooed no. 5874 on my forearm, I was sent to work in Pavilion No. 8 in Brzezinka (Birkenau) it was a huge space like a big house with piles of clothes on one side, shoes and suitcases on the other. Everywhere, you saw piles brought directly from the crematorium, we sorted the clothing according to size and quality; The Germans then sent the clothes to Germany- they murdered the Jews and wore their clothes”. When my mother went to sleep in the cabins, she put on her layers of clothes to  share with other women, later they started sleeping at the work place. My Mother told me: “we changed clothes often, to leave less to the Germans…one day they told us we are going to wear only dresses with dots

Series 5: on a freestanding shelving unit, The Sorter, a bending figure of a hanger and 2 dresses (black/white stripes+ colored dots). On view next to the treasure box, 2 grid squares: Prisoner’s I.D. and Six Names