Revealing the Transnational Histories of Intimate Objects During the Holocaust

A list of material stores housed at 27 Chopin Street in Lublin, Poland, from August 1943 provides information on the variety and quantity of stolen goods that had been taken from some 2 million Polish Jewish people killed in Operation Reinhard. The lists note many objects including those we have come to expect to see in Holocaust exhibitions globally, including 300 children’s winter coats, 300 briefcases and 1600 pairs of shoes. The list also contains hundreds of items we do not usually consider including 200 bras and 300 women’s stockings. This article will use bureaucratic documents found in the International Tracing Service (ITS) archives in combination with examples of bras found in various museum collections to trace the different consequences of one set of violent actions at the point of removal from their original owners. By reading these consequences alongside one another we can bring together the personal and intimate stories of Jewish women with broader narratives of violent dispossession and structural and economic systems into one view.