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Auschwitz museum finds gold jewelry hidden in mug after more than 70 years

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[An incredible discovery of stolen riches/IB Times]

Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum announced that a mug in their collection of items stolen by Nazis has held jewelry for more than 70 years without anyone’s knowledge.

The jewelry was hidden away in a double bottom, which only became exposed when workers were moving the mug.

“It was very well hidden, however, due to the passage of time, the materials underwent gradual degradation, and the second bottom separated from the mug,” Hanna Kubik of the museum’s Memorial Collections said in a press release.

The second bottom housed a ring and necklace, which they believe are plated with 14-karat gold.

“For detailed confirmation of the contents of the findings, the object was subjected to specialist tests, among others x-ray pictures, and a test using the XRF method, which proved the presence of the metals: copper, gold and silver,” she added.

Unfortunately, the mug had no markings to make it possible to know who it once belonged to. However, the museum said they will store the jewelry in the way it was hidden by its own “as a testimony to the fate of the Jews deported to the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.”

Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, director of the museum, noted that since these valuable items were hidden, that means the victims knew they could have been robbed. “But on the other hand it shows that the Jewish families constantly had a ray of hope that these items will be required for their existence,” he added.

The mug is one of 12,000 pieces of kitchenware the museum has in their collection, which includes items decorated with images of children playing and pictures of animals.