In my book, I talk about the fact that sentimental objects can have a very powerful effect on people. Such objects are deemed to have an essential quality that is integral and irreplaceable. One of the most moving stories I describe is of the bizarre events surrounding a suitcase. Michel Levi-Leleu last saw his father Pierre in 1943 carrying a cardboard suitcase when he left the safety of a refuge in Avignon, France looking for a new home for his Jewish family. Michel never saw his father again but sixty years later the suitcase re-appeared at the centre of a legal battle over ownership
It was a terrible time when Michel’s father and suitcase went missing. The Jewish Holocaust of the Second World War was one of most atrocious crimes against humanity in modern times. For the half million annual visitors today, one of the most disturbing displays from the museum at Auschwitz is the pile of battered suitcases that once contained all the worldly possessions of families that would end their days in the death camp. Each case was labelled with the name of the owner in the belief that they would be re-united with their belongings again. The Nazis knew that to maintain the charade, people had to think that their possessions were going to be kept safely and returned to them at some later date.
In 2005, Michel visited the Shoah memorial centre in Paris that was hosting a temporary Holocaust exhibit including some of the suitcases on loan from Auschwitz. He knew his father had died during the war but could not believe his eyes when he spotted the suitcase with the hand-written label reading “86 Boul, Villette, Paris Pierre Levi.” He asked for it to be returned. When the Auschwitz museum refused to hand over the suitcase, Michael took them to court. In court papers, the museum stated, “The suitcases of prisoners deported to Auschwitz that are exhibited at the museum are among the most valuable objects that we have.”
Only this summer, has a settlement been finally reached. the Auschwitz Museum has decided to leave the suitcase in the Paris Shoah museum on a long-term basis. Mr. Levi-Leleu’s family, in turn, has renounced its claims. To throw a little humour on what be a very painful episode, I guess we can say that the incident is now an open and shut case.
