News

From 9 July to 5 August 2026, the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum is showing the #StolenMemory traveling exhibition of the Arolsen Archives. At its center are rings, watches, photos, and letters – personal belongings that the SS took from concentration camp prisoners upon their arrival. To this day, the Arolsen Archives preserve such keepsakes belonging to around 2,000 people, known as "effects" (Effekten), and are searching for their families in order to return them.

In the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp, too, the SS robbed prisoners of their personal belongings and stored the loot in the so-called Effektenkammer, the camp's property room. The SS later deported many of the women to satellite camps of the Neuengamme concentration camp for forced labor – which is how their belongings came to Bad Arolsen after the end of the war. The exhibition tells some of these stories, for example that of Neonella Doboitschina. The Gestapo deported the young woman to Ravensbrück in May 1944. Her friends called her Nelly; her jewelry and her photos with handwritten dedications are still waiting for her family today. The story of Halina Kucharczyk shows that the search can succeed. In July 2025, her granddaughters received their grandmother's ring back at the Memorial.

The exhibition, housed in a fold-out overseas shipping container, can be seen daily from 10 am to 6 pm on the forecourt of the former Kommandantur. Admission is free, and everyone is welcome. Visitors can also support the search for the families themselves – search appeals and further information at stolenmemory.org.

Links

• https://www.stolenmemory.org/en/
• https://arolsen-archives.org/en/participate/help-us-search/
• https://www.ravensbrueck-sbg.de/en/news/stolenmemory-ring-of-halina-kucharczyk-returned-at-ravensbrueck-memorial-museum/