Identity tags found at Sobibor of 4 young children, likely made by their parents

Archaeologists conducting excavations at the Sobibor death camp in Poland have unearthed the identity tags of four young children who died there during the Holocaust.

The tags bear the names, dates of birth and hometown of the four, aged 5-11: Lea Judith De La Penha, Deddie Zak, Annie Kapper and David Juda Van der Velde.

Yoram Haimi from the Israel Antiquities Authority, who was conducting the dig alongside Polish and Dutch colleagues, says: “As far as we know, identity tags with children’s names have only been found at Sobibor, and nowhere else.”

“Since the tags are very different from each other, it is evident that this was probably not some organized effort. The children’s identity tags were prepared by their parents, who were probably desperate to ensure that the children’s relatives could be located in the chaos of the Second World War.”

He adds: “Lea, Annie and Deddie’s tags have enabled us to link faces and stories to the names, which until now had only been anonymous entries in Nazi lists.”