We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.
We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers,
From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam,
And because we are only made of stuff and leather
And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire.
Excerpt from “I Saw a Mountain” by Moshe Shulstein (1947)
This red dress shoe belonged to an unknown deportee. “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away,” Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City. Collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oswiecim, Poland. Copyright: Musealia
