At the end of February 1945, Dresden’s chief of police ordered that all valuables found on air-raid victims be kept in the vault of the Main State Archives. Less valuable items were turned over by the police to the Personal Effects Recovery Office of the 6th Municipal District Administration, which collected the ”recovered goods” in the assembly hall of the State Secondary School for Boys at Kantstraße 2.
The recovery personnel, drafted from the ranks of local NSDAP groups, sifted through the salvaged pieces of baggage and individual articles, listed them and attempted to locate the owners. To compensate the personnel for the unsavoury work, they were allotted tobacco and alcohol. Red Army soldiers plundered the storeroom at the beginning of May 1945. What remained was distributed, and papers were turned over to the Missing Persons Bureau.

Marked in 2001