In Nazi Death Camp, a Mysterious Link to Anne Frank

Researchers excavating the remains of one of the most notorious Nazi death camps have uncovered a pendant that appears identical to one belonging to Anne Frank, Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial said Sunday. Yad Vashem says it has ascertained the pendant belonged to Karoline Cohn—a Jewish girl who perished at Sobibor and may have been connected to the famous diarist. Both were born in Frankfurt in 1929, and historians have found no other pendants like theirs. The triangular piece found has the words "Mazal Tov" written in Hebrew on one side along with Karoline's date of birth. The other side has the Hebrew letter "heh," an initial for God, as well as three Stars of David. Researchers are trying to reach out to remaining relatives of the two to confirm whether they were related, reports the AP.

Since 2007, the Israel Antiquities Authority, together with Yad Vashem, has been conducting excavations at the former camp in Poland in a novel approach to Holocaust research. The pendant was found along with numerous other personal effects in the area of the destroyed camp where victims were forced to undress before being sent along the "road to Heaven," the Times of Israel reports, or the path to the gas chambers. It's believed the pendant fell through the floorboards. Anne died at the Bergen-Belsen camp, in northern Germany, in 1945. "This pendant demonstrates once again the importance of archaeological research of former Nazi death camp sites," an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist tells the Times. "The moving story of Karoline Cohn is symbolic of the shared fate of the Jews murdered in the camp. It is important to tell the story, so that we never forget."