Belongings of an unknown Soviet POW.

In 1941 the Nazis selected among the Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) those who were Jewish or politruks (political officers of the Red Army) for execution.

The SS built a special barrack at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, in which a false medical examination was simulated and where the Soviet prisoner was shot in the back of the head by an SS officer. During the fall of 1941, around 15,000 Soviet POWs were killed this way.

These photograph shows the personal belongings of an unknown Soviet POW killed in Sachsenhausen. Wrapped in a piece of paper are his precious items that he needed for survival in a Nazi camp: Pieces of a pocket knife, shoe laces, leather bands, small branches and a cigarette holder.