Secret Discovery Found In World War II Auschwitz Mug

Many people hide their jewelry in odd places to ward off possible theft. That’s exactly what someone had in mind when they hid their ring and necklace in a mug over 70 years ago.

Staff at the Auschwitz museum have uncovered jewelry secretly hidden in an enamel mug. It has been hidden since the liberation of the wartime Nazi death camp in 1945.

“When I picked up this mug, it turned out that there were hidden objects inside,” museum staffer Hanna Kubik said.

The mug was just one of thousands of kitchenware items that were taken by Nazi guards from those that had been deported to the camp in southern Poland during World War II.

The mug has an inside double bottom where under a gold ring and necklace wrapped in a piece of canvas were hidden.

“With time, the fake bottom had detached from the cup, so it was clearly visible that inside there was a bundle and you could see a fragment of the chain and a ring,” said Kubik.

About 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland from 1940 to 1945. Those people had their belongings taken away upon arrival, of which many are on display today.