Canada or Kanada

Although intended for the gas chambers the Germans intended none the less to distribute the possessions of the victims across Germany. Initially the victims were sent straight to the chamber and member of sonderkommando (crematorium Working party) would then go about stripping the possession fro the dead bodies.

This proved time consuming, so the Germans arranged the first area to the chamber to look exactly like a shower area, this encouraged the victims to strip down before entering the chamber.

This of course made it easy then for the collection of all possessions left behind and they were then sent Kanada.

Kanada was an area of the camp I believe worked only by women. The area was where all the items left behind were sorted and matched before being distributed across Germany.

The area was so named because it was believed that Canada was a place of great riches as was this area of the camp.

[webbhead]

For more on "Kanada" see survivor Tadeusz Borowski's story cycle, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.

[Kiwiwriter]

Most of it was burned down just before the Soviets liberated Auschwitz. They still found thousands and thousands of pairs of kids' shoes anyway, and wondered what on earth that was all about.