Nazi death camp researchers unearth pendant with Anne Frank link

JERUSALEM, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Researchers excavating a Nazi death camp in Poland unearthed a pendant identical to one that belonged to diarist Anne Frank, officials from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial said.

Researchers said thetriangle-shaped pendant, unearthed at the site of the Sobibor death camp, belonged to 14-year-old Karoline Cohn, a Jewish girl who died at Sobibor and may have had connections to Frank, who documented her life in a diary while hiding in Amsterdam. The pendant bears the words "mazal tov" written in Hebrew on one side with the date July 3, 1929. On the other side is a Hebrew letter and three Stars of David, Israel Antiquities Authority said.

"Both Anne Frank and Karoline Cohn were born in Frankfurt, suggesting a possible familial connection between Frank and Cohn," researchers said.

The pendant was among many items belonging to Holocaust victims found during an archaeological dig in October. Excavators also found the remains of areas where women's hair was cut off before they were sent to gas chambers, jewelry and other personal items.

Some 250,000 people died at Sobibor from April 1942 to October 1943. The Nazis shut down the camp after a prisoners' revolt and razed the foundation to destroy evidence. The archeological dig at the site started in 2007. More recently, archeologist have found several pieces of jewelry, including a woman's watch and a pendant in the shape of the Star of David.