Three tin bowls from Bergen-Belsen

These three tin bowls were given to, and used by, my mother and her parents while imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1944-1945.

I do not know why my grandmother decided to take them when they left the camp. I can only imagine it was an act of pragmatism - carrying with her something that might still prove useful as they were moved on again.

Bowls suggest nourishment and comfort, but the reality was very different. More often than not, they held little more than scraps of turnip in water, the evening ‘meal'.

Today, they remain ordinary objects that carry an extraordinary memory of survival.