On arrival at camps like Auschwitz, Dachau, and Flossenburg, prisoners were forced to surrender all their belongings, including clothing, jewelry, money, watches, and even personal items like glasses and shoes. These items were sorted and stored in warehouses, and then shipped to Germany for use by the Nazi state or sold to fund the war effort.
Valuables such as gold rings, jewelry, and even gold teeth extracted from murdered victims were melted down into ingots and deposited in German and Swiss banks, becoming assets of the Reich.
