My Grandmother is a Holocaust survivor who was sent to Płaszów in 1943, at the age of 14. At some point, the Nazi’s decided to confiscate any remaining jewelry in the prisoner’s possession. When she was 9, my Grandmother’s beloved cousin Salek gave her a delicate sterling silver dachshund necklace. Instead of allowing it to fall into the hands of the German’s, my Grandmother buried it next to her barracks.

This story has stuck with me throughout the years. I know that Płaszów was dismantled as the war was ending and the area is now mostly hills and fields. I can’t help but wonder if my Grandmother’s necklace might have been found over the years or could still be there where her barrack was. She is almost 92 years old but still more than with it. I know looking for her necklace is basically a needle in a haystack but even needles get found on occasion.

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Also, as somewhat related question, were there anyone with enough imagination to imagine "other universe" or parallel worlds in their mind prior to quantum physics (or MWI)?

And yes, I know Tolkien himself created his world as Earth's past.

Edit: It seems my second question needs some elaboration. My assumption in asking the question was that advancement in physics changes the way we understand our universe, and that change in turn affects how we understand fictional universes.

Example 1: People before the discovery of other solar systems couldn't have imagined "other worlds" in that sense (or so it seems to me). The furthest their imagination could go must have been "far away on (including below and above) this earth" and "far away in time."

Example 2: Multiple world interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics introduced the concept of parallel world (or universe). Prior to this, could readers of Tolkien imagine his world as anything other than something in this universe?

After Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603 King James VI of Scotland was crowned King of England. Was he the only possible candidate for the throne or were there any others, and was there any dispute about who would be the next monarch?

From what i learned at school i get the impresion that the German economy after the great depression was in ruins, but after Hitler got to power it improved rapidly up to WW2. Is this true? What did he, and the rest of the party, do to improve/make the situation worse?

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For example today, commanding officers are not allowed to have sexual relations with enlisted members or bosses asking for sex from employees even if consensual.

Are there instances, where consent could not be given due to differences in power, Roman senator and an aide, nanny and employer, or other such relationships?

If not recognized as sexual coercion, any examples where it was at least socially viewed negatively due to the power difference in the relationship.

Focusing on the Viking Age, how were weapons like a Dane Axe carried without using the warrior's hands? On the belt, or on the back? Which was more practical?

Thanks!

How have the black metal Church burnings effected the way that Scandinavia sees the black metal community and how has it changed since the early 90s. How does the Area react to being the leading countries in such an extreme form of music.

One of the Egyptian capitals is named Thebes, a direct lift from the city-state of Thebes in Greece. And from looking at a map of ancient Egypt on Wikipedia, several of the cities continue to be known by a name using the -polis suffix (e.g. Herakleopolis), a very Greek name for a city, but highly unlikely to also be an Egyptian name. Why did the Greeks have such an interest in this foreign culture, besides their enigmatic pyramids? And why didn't other conquerors of Egypt like Persia also have this interest?

How did soldies during WW2 not go deaf after a week of fighting? Because I rarely see any form of ear protection on period images.

Full sized rifles alone are loud enough, but artillery or machinegun operators must have had a load of trouble with tinnitus.

Prior to the political union of England and Scotland, did people living on one side of the border recognise a close cultural connection with those on the other, much as the Danish/Norwegians/Swedes may today identify as 'Scandinavians' despite not living in the same countries? Or would the medieval English have viewed the Scottish as being as 'foreign' to them as the French or Spanish?

It seems like there's a lot of overlap in function between the 3 throughout the war. The STuG and Panzer IV both started out as infantry support vehicles but were retrofitted with different guns and used for killing tanks. So you've got Vehicles like the Jagdpanzer 38(t), Panzer IV and STuG III all having very similar performance. So i'm wondering if they used them in the same way they would a Panzer.

I know that it's not technically a tank. But it seems to have a lot going for it, It's fast, cheap, reliable and small. while also being able to knock out the vast majority of tanks reliably. Other vehicles like the STuG, Jagdpanzer IV/70 and Panzer IV are similar but i think they're all at a disadvantage compared to Hetz. I was hoping someone could tell me if there's stuff i'm overlooking regarding the performance of German tanks that would make the 38 less appealing.

I recently learned that Simo Hayha's original claimed number of 505 kills was more likely to have been around 200-230 kills.

Why do so many military historians take the numbers for granted? How did snipers and their observers keep the score and why do we have any reason to trust them, when you factor in things like propaganda? It seems to me that inflating these numbers was something people would do for propaganda services.

I was hoping you could provide me with some book suggestions, my wife and I are interested in reading some philosophy of history books. I have looked at the list in the FAQ page, and while two of them seem interesting, the list is quite small.

My wife and I both have Master's degrees in history (she focused on the Ancient Mediterranean and I focused on the United States.) We met while working on our Masters but neither of us have stayed in the field. Six years after obtaining our Masters degrees we've decided it would be fun to read some historographies or philosophy of history texts and discuss them together.

An example of the type of texts that I would be interested in are the two texts that most changed how I view the world.

Benidict Anderson's "Imagined Communities"

and

James C. Scott's "Seeing Like a State"

another example would be the text my wife and I are currently reading together and discussing,

Michel-Rolph Trouillot's "Silencing the Past"

In school, in Iran we are told that since Iranian were sick of Sassanid empire they didn't put up a fight and embraced Islam with open arms. Is that true? Follow up question, what made Persians to accept Islam over Zoroastrianism?