Inscriptions found in a child’s shoe at Auschwitz has offered a sad yet informative view into a dark moment of human history. As the most infamous of Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz opened in 1940 and was the largest of camp of its kind. It was located in southern Poland and sometimes referred to as Auschwitz-Birkenau. The camp’s initial purpose was a detention center for political prisoners. However, it eventually transformed into a network of 40 structures where any “undesirables”, which came to mostly mean Jewish people as the war progressed, were used as slave labor and ultimately put to death.

As the Soviet army approached in January of 1945, Nazi officials ordered the camp abandoned and forced approximately 60,000 prisoners to march to other locations. When the Soviets entered Auschwitz, they encountered a grim sight: thousands of emaciated prisoners and piles of bodies left behind.

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People were sent to Auschwitz from all over western Europe, and the first country occupied by the Germans, Poland, saw citizens sent first to ghettos, one called the Theresienstadt Ghetto, in Prague. From there people were ultimately sent by train to meet their fate at the horrible camp.

But human nature being what it is, people longed for a way to ensure that, for their children, at least, those who would come later would be reminded of the real individuals who lost their lives there. One way parents did this was by recording information about their children secretly and stashing it away from the prying eyes of SS guards.

Read more: The Vintage News