History of Sorts

The possessions and precious belongings of the Jews transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau were left in the train carriages and on the ramp as their owners were quickly put through the selection process.

When the selection process was complete, a work group of prisoners called the ‘Kanada Kommando’ collected the belongings of victims and took them to the ‘Kanada’ warehouse facility for sorting and transporting back to Germany.

To prisoners Canada was a country that symbolised wealth. They, therefore, gave the ironic name Kanada (the German spelling of Canada) to the warehouse area as it was full of possessions, clothing and jewellery.

The prisoners working in the Kanada Kommando lived in barracks. The barracks were inside the warehouse, away from the rest of the prisoners in the camp. They were in a better position than the other inmates.

They could take extra food on which to survive, a pair of shoes or extra clothing to protect themselves from the severe winter weather. Some smuggled valuables to bribe the kapos or guards. If they were caught, they were killed.

Even with the dangers it must have felt as a little bit of ‘heaven’ to have a bit of reprieve of the horrors they witnessed on a daily basis in the main camps.

But of course that bit of heaven really was a slightly better version of hell.

Women prisoners of Kanadakommando sorting through the belongings confiscated from Jewish victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Male and female prisoners in the “Kanada” section, the arrival of the trucks

Jewish property that has been left on the platform, to be taken by trucks to the “Kanada” section.

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