JANUARY 1945 AT AUSCHWITZ THE POLISH – GERMAN...

no. 13 Janary 2010

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JANUARY 1945 AT AUSCHWITZ

THE POLISH – GERMAN PROJECT

HALLOWED BY THY NAME

ISSN 1899-4407

EDITORIAL BOARD:Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine

Editor:Paweł SawickiEditorial secretary: Agnieszka Juskowiak-SawickaEditorial board:Bartosz Bartyzel Wiktor BoberekJarek MensfeltOlga OnyszkiewiczJadwiga Pinderska-LechArtur SzyndlerColumnist: Mirosław GanobisDesign and layout:Agnieszka Matuła, Grafi konTranslations: David R. KennedyProofreading:Beata KłosCover:MDSMPhotographer:Tomasz Mól

PUBLISHER:

Auschwitz-BirkenauState Museum

www.auschwitz.org.pl

PARTNERS:

Jewish Center

www.ajcf.pl

Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation

www.centrum-dialogu.oswiecim.pl

International Youth Meeting Center

www.mdsm.pl

IN COOPERATION WITH:

Kasztelania

www.kasztelania.pl

State HigherVocational School in Oświęcim

www.pwsz-oswiecim.pl

Editorial address:„Oś – Oświęcim, Ludzie, Historia, Kultura”Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenauul. Więźniów Oświęcimia 2032-603 Oświęcime-mail: [email protected]

A GALLERY OF THE 20TH CENTURY

EDITORIAL

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On various occasions, from the need to guide some around this place because of national or church related commemorations, in different years and seasons—I have visited our Auschwitz Museum. I will describe the circumstances of one of these visits.In the early 1960s, summer... with a cousin from Wrocław, who spent his vacation with us, we were taking a walk, as we did every day, around our town. In the area, called Niwa, where there currently is a roundabout, an elegant car with Italian license plates stopped near us. A handsome man and an elegant lady, with Mediterranean looks, were its passengers. After trying to communicate in different languages, the man in the car and my cousin stumbled upon the French language, in which their exchange was fl uent. The travelers asked us if we wouldn’t guide them directly to the Museum itself, an offer that we jumped upon

immediately—getting into the car, because who wouldn’t have wanted to take a ride in a luxurious Lancia during a time when the “kings” of our roads were inelegant Warszawas, Syrenas, and Wartburgs?!We are driving to Auschwitz I. The Italian couple—he, most likely middle, or higher class businessman and his pretty wife, with whom I tried to speak with in English—but our mutual linguistic skills were almost non-existent—she walked silently and deep thought past the Museum’s artifacts. At fi rst, they were confounded by the type and shape of the camp’s buildings: not brittle barracks, but a city of tenements. Piles of hair, shoes, suitcases, and prosthetic limbs did make an impression on them. They especially showed their emotions in the crematorium building and by the gallows on which the camp commandant Hoess had been executed.In Birkenau, they took in its enormity. They listened to the quiet and almost

pastoral tranquility of this place... There was high grass, birch groves, rows of barracks, fences, and countless ruins. The memorial had not yet been installed.After several hours, the couple, Adriano Tiberini and his wife Laura from Milan—because they fi nally introduced themselves—thanked us for the company. We exchanged addresses; they invited us, not knowing about our passports, foreign exchange problems, and material inability. After some time, we received a small package from Milan: in an elegant case a fountain pen and two “Parker” pens, not available in our market. We reciprocated by sending them an album about Polish art, which was printed rather well for the time. After that, there were a few more post cards from their journeys around Europe and ours—to the Bieszczady Mountains. However, just as everything—it ended, leaving a handful of good memories.

Andrzej Winogrodzki

On January 27, we are commemorat-ing the 65th anniversary of the libera-tion of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Con-centration Camp. This is an especially important date, ending the 1,689 days of the camp’s existence, created by Nazi Germany, which had the dual function of a concentration and extermination camp. Auschwitz has become a symbol for many religions, nationalities and cultures, as well as a reference point for many different currents of philosophy, social sciences, and global politics. The world continues to try to understand—with varying success—lessons learned from the history and experiences of Auschwitz. And most importantly, the world remembers what this means as

evidenced in 2009, when 1.3 million people from all continents visited the memorial site. Last month, we published accounts of previous yearly commemorations; in the January issue of Oś we will remem-ber the last days before the liberation. The camp was found in a state of cha-os. Thousands of prisons marched out through the gates on the evacuation marches, the so-called Death Marches, documents were burned, and the cre-matoria and gas chambers were de-stroyed using explosives. In the end, the SS escaped from the camp, however, for those prisoners left behind this did not mean peace; German units came to the camps and the very last minute were a

deadly threat to the prisoners. Finally, the day of liberation came. We recommend that you pay particular attention to the articles about the semi-nars at the International Youth Meeting Center, which was about women dur-ing the Holocaust. On the pages of the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, we are publishing reports from retreats, dur-ing which discussion revolved around praying to our God, as seen by two reli-gions—Judaism and Christianity. Also included in Oś is a review of the play The Wardrobe, which was performed at the Jewish Center.

Paweł SawickiEditor-in-chief

[email protected]

Grounds of the former Auschwitz camp. Photo from the “Gallery of the 20th Century Collection”

Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 13, January 2010

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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

THE ATTENDANCE RECORD—1.3 MILLION VISITORS AT AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL


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Visitors at the Auschwitz Memorial

Visitors at Auschwitz

Memorial in 2009 by country

Number of visitors at the Auschwitz Memorial (2000-2009)

1 300 000

1 200 000

1 100 000

1 000 000

900 000

800 000

700 000

600 000

500 000

400 000

300 000

200 000

100 000

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500

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578

700

699

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1 13

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1.3 million people from all around the world have visited the Auschwitz Memorial in 2009. This is the record in the 62-year history of the Museum. It’s very important that the majority of visitors are young people—pupils and students. There were over 821 thousand of them—that is 120 thousand more than in 2008. Auschwitz Memorial has been the most visited Museum in Poland for a number of years.

“The importance of this place in the history of the world cannot be overesti-mated. It is diffi cult to un-derstand the Europe today without a thorough knowl-edge of Auschwitz history. It is also diffi cult to under-stand our own contempo-rary responsibility, if we do not listen to the tragedy of the Holocaust and pris-oners of the concentration camp. That is why I do ap-preciate the increase of the number of young visitors. The future of our world is in their hands”—said the

Museum Director Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński.

The secretary of the Inter-national Auschwitz Coun-cil Marek Zając believes that the record number of visitors gives us a power-ful hope. “It is the hope that the tragedy of the con-centration and extermina-tion camps will continue to force us to ask the fun-damental questions, that it will shape the attitude of resistance against evil and the need to be good in next generations”—he said.

The list of top ten countries from which visitors come has not changed much. “We must certainly notice the increase of the number of visitors from Poland—compared to 2008 it is over 140 thousand more. There were also more visitors from Israel (18 thousand more), Italy (20 thousand more) as well as from France, Norway and our southern neighbors from the Czech Republic and Slo-vakia”—said Andrzej Ka-corzyk, the head of the Visi-tors Services Section.

“The statistics from non-European countries are also interesting. Probably due to the economic crisis and the depreciation of the dollar, we had less visitors from the American continent, but there is a constant growth of the number of visitors from Asia. In 2009 the Auschwitz Memorial was visited by 35 thousand people from South Korea, 8 thousand from Japan, 5.6 thousand from China and 4.8 thousand from Singapore”—added Andrzej Kacorzyk.

Due to the huge interest in the summer months the or-ganization of the visits at the Memorial was changed temporarily at the former Auschwitz I camp, where the main exhibition is locat-ed. During the peak hours only groups with a guide could enter the site—in-cluding the groups made up of individual visitors.

“The solution that in certain hours the site of Auschwitz I camp could be visited only

by guided groups worked really well. We will proba-bly act similarly in the peak months of 2010, since such a system means greater com-fort for visitors. However, we must be aware that if the attendance would increase in the future by i.e. half a million people, we will have to introduce a completely new system. It’s not just

because of the protection of authentic site of the former camp, but also because of the safety of our visitors”—said director Cywiński.

“We should be grateful to all the people who take care of the Memorial. Without the daily involvement of the Museum staff, so many peo-ple from around the world

would not understand this symbol of the atroci-ties of the 20th century. It is worth remembering that the most visited museum in Poland is also a world leading exemplary institu-tion in terms of education activities and preserva-tion”—said Marek Zając.

Paweł Sawicki

Poland 553 000

United Kingdom 75 000

Italy 63 900

Israel 62 400

Germany 57 900

France 48 300

Czech Republic 43 500

Slovakia 42 900

Norway 40 300

USA 39 800

South Korea 35 400

Sweden 27 100

Spain 26 700

Hungary 18 200

Australia 13 500

Netherlands 11 700

Ireland 11 000

Belgium 10 000

Japan 8200

Danemark 6600

Canada 6600

China 5600

Singapore 4800

Austria 4400

Slovenia 4000

Finland 3700

Greece 3700

Croatia 3400

Romania 3100

Portugal 3000

Other countries 66 100

Together 1 303 800

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5 January 1945(Friday)

In block 11 in Auschwitz, the last Katowice Gestapo police court (Standgericht) hearing was held. Around 70 Poles were sentenced to death—men and women. They were shot the next day in cremato-rium V in Birkenau.

7 January 1945(Saturday)

In the Auschwitz women’s camp, four Jewish women were hanged: Ella Gartner, Roza Robota, Regina Safi r and Ester Wajsblum. They were sentenced to death for helping prisoners—meme-bers of the Sonderkomman-do who worked in the Birk-enau crematoria—to make the 7 October uprising possi-ble. The help consisted in de-livering to the Sonderkom-mando stolen explosives and ammunition from the Union-Werke warehouses, in which three of the women hanged worked. This was the last execution at the Auschwitz camp.

15 January 1945(Monday)

The number of prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau was 15,325 males and 16,421 fe-males. The SS garrison con-sisted of 2,474 men, as well as of 56 women.

Work unit 104B (Abbruch-kommando Krematorium), working on dismantling the crematorium equipment, consisted of 70 prison-ers, former members of the Sonderkommando. The dis-mantled equipment was taken

to the railroad siding, from where it was transported to the Gross-Rosen concentra-tion camp. The prisoners bored holes in the sides of the crematorium and gas cham-ber buildings. They were meant to be later fi lled with dynamite.

The head offi ce that kept records of the prisoner population within the camp (Standesamt II) received orders to pack up prisoner documents (death books and prisoner fi les) and load them into a vehicle. The SS men supervised the female pris-oners that were made to do this job.

17 January 1945(Wednesday)

31,894 male and female pris-oners of Auschwitz-Birkenau stood in their respective camps for the last evening roll call.

Due to Richard Baer’s, Ausch-witz SS garrison and camp commandant’s, decision the evacuation, he ordered personally chosen by him members of the camp staff to start evacuating prisoners in columns—mercilessly liqui-dating those prisoners who tried to escape during the evacuation and those who tried to stay behind.

The sub-camps of Sosnowitz and Neu-Dachs were evacu-ated.Camp doctor, Josef Mengele dismantled his laboratory in camp BIIf, taking with him the materials he gathered from his experiments on twins, dwarves, and disa-bled individuals.

18 January 1945(Thursday)

In the early morning, the evacuation of prisoners from the women’s camp in Birk-enau began. In short intervals and accompanied by SS men, columns of 500 women with children were led out of the camps. 5345 female prisoners left the camp that day.

Around 800 prisoners were taken from the sub-camp Jani-nagrube and rushed on foot to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Only 200 extremely ex-hausted prisoners reached the destination. Every so often, a column of prisoners left the Birkenau camp. In the afternoon, the last column left, consisting of about 1,500 people. The col-umn consisted of prisoners from the penalty company (Strafkompanie), consisting of around 400 prisoners including young prisoners and 70 pris-oners from the crematorium

Abbruchkommando, along with 30 Sonderkommando prisoners, who were left in crematorium V without SS su-pervision and secretly joined the evacuation column—fear-ing they would be murdered in the camp. The evacuation route led through the fol-lowing towns and villages: Oświęcim, Rajsko, Brzeszcze, Góra, Miedźna, Ćwiklice, Pszczyna, Kobielnice, Kryry, Suszec, Rudziczka, Kleszczów, Żory, Rogoźne, Rój, Rybnik, Świerklany Dolne, Marklo-wice to Wodzisław Śląski.

In the evening all the prisoners of the Monowitz concentration camp (Buna) were gathered at the roll call square. Thousand person columns were formed, to each a nurses unit was at-tached. Their path led through Bieruń, Mikołów, Mokre Śląskie, and Przyszowice to Gliwice.

The sub-camps of Gleiwitz II, Tschechowitz, Golleschau were evacuated.

In every offi ce documents and camp books were being destroyed and burned.


In the morning, at Auschwitz I, II, III the only prisoners that remained were those who were unfi t to evacuate the camp and a few dozen who stayed behind to help the sick prisoners.

Allied air forces once again bombed the IG Farben Indus-trie plant.

The sub-camps of Gleiwitz III, Gleiwitz IV, Hubertushütte, Hindenburg, Charlottegrube, Althammer, Neustadt and Fürstengrube were evacuated.

The Red Army entered Ja-worzno, bringing freedom to around 400 prisoners who were left behind in the Neu-Dachs sub-camp, being that they were unfi t to be evacu-ated on foot.

JANUARY 1945

This year is the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi German Concentration and Death Camp Auschiwtz-Birkenau. Usually, we focus on the liberation itself and the date 27 January. We will examine what January of 1945 was like, based on the Auschwitz Chronicle, authored by Danuta Czech.

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A transport of evacuees from Auschwitz, January 24, 1945 Werehouses in Birkenau on fi re

Death march in the work by Zbigniew Otfinowski

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In the morning, a unit of the SS entered Birkenau’s BIIf camp hospital and took away those prisoners fi t for labor. The work they were given was to carry corpses, which had not been dealt with for a week, to the area around crematorium V. There, the bodies were piled in pyres that the SS men set alight.


The commander of Offi ce WI (Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH-DEST) in Oranienburg informed the commander of the group of W offi ces in the SS-WVHA that due to war associated events the Auschwitz camp had been evacuated on 18 January 1945.

Nervous units of SS were wandering around the Birk-enau camp. In the morning, one of the units entered the BIIe women’s camp and or-dered the prisoners to make the SS men dinner, giving them fresh poultry and a pig. They didn’t eat the din-ner, however, because they received orders to quickly march and escape. After they had left, some of the healthi-er male and female prisoners pried open the gate to camp BIIe and entered the camp manager’s offi ce (Blockführ-erstube) and started to ran-sack the interior. Suddenly, they noticed an approaching SS unit, so they returned to the camp.

21 January 1945(Sunday)

The evacuation of the Blech-hammer sub-camp started. For the road, each prisoner received 800 grams of bread, a portion of margarine and artifi cial honey. Around 4,000 prisoners from Blech-hammer, as well as from other Auschwitz sub-camps left the camp. Their march led though: Koźle, Prud-nik, Głuchołazy, Nysa,

Otmuchów, Ząbkowice Śląskie, Świdnica, and Strzegom to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where the prisoners arrived on 2 February 1945. During the march, the SS murdered around 800 prisoners.

Auschwitz main camp prisoners came to the Birk-enau camp with news that at their camp the SS ware-houses contained so much food, that it could possibly last several months. Im-mediately, a group of pris-oners was organized who, with carts, made their way to the said warehouses, from where they brought two slaughtered pigs, tins of meat, condensed milk, macaroni, and other food stuffs. So much food was brought, that it could last for one month for both the male and female camps. Be-cause of this, a kitchen was organized in Birkenau.

The evacuation of the Golle-schau camp was completed. The last group of 96 sick and exhausted prisoners, as well as four prisoners’ corpses who died during the evacuation, were sent in sealed freight cars to the sub-camp Freudenthal in Czechoslovakia. 29 January, the train station manager in Zwittau informed the di-rector of Oscar Schindler’s ammunitions factory in Brüssen-Brünnlitz, a sub-camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camps, that at the train station in Zwit-tau there was a freight car containing Jewish pris-oners. Schindler ordered the freight car to Brüssen-Brünnlitz. Because the hing-es and locks on the wagon were frozen, it was opened using a piece of equipment called “Autogen”. Half of the prisoners were found dead in different positions, sitting, kneeling, from, and standing, either frozen or starved to death. Several dozen died after spending a few days in the camp.

22 January 1945(Monday)

In the morning, a unit of the SD once again came to camp BIIf in Birkenau to arrest Andreyev, who was sleeping, and 5 other Soviet POWs ac-cused of fi ring guns. After leading them behind barrack number 14, they were ar-ranged in front of a ditch full of water and executed.

23 January 1945(Tuesday)

Prisoners of the sub-camp Laurahütte were evacuated; they were loaded into train cars that were waiting on the rail platform near the metal foundry. As the train traveled through Silesia, it stopped in a forest near the Rzędówka train station. There, lay the corpses of prisoners in the striped camp uniforms. On or-ders of the escorts, the prison-ers had to remove the striped uniforms from the corpses, as well as gather up the camp soup bowls that were thrown about. The corpses were most likely those of prisoners from the Güntergrube sub-camp, who were murdered while they were being transported the same route the previous day. The evacuation transport continued through Katowice, Moravska Ostrava, and Vi-enna to the Mathausen con-centration camp. The journey lasted fi ve days and nights, during which 134 prisoners lost their lives.

1,200 prisoners were taken from the Eintrachthütte sub-camp.

In the afternoon, an SS unit arrived at the BIIf camp in-fi rmary in Birkenau, and or-dered prisoners to bring the bodies of the Soviet POWs shot by crematorium V. The bodies were piled on a pyre. That evening, the SS men set the pyre, containing the POWs and prisoners, ablaze. Next, they set fi re to the 30 warehouse buildings in the Effektenlager. Prisoners in camp BIIf formed a team of healthy prisoners whose job was to make sure that the wind didn’t spread the fi re to the camp infi rmary, sepa-rated from the Effektenlager by a few dozen meters.

25 January 1945(Thursday)

SS-Gruppenführer Richard Glücks, head of offi ce D in the SS-WVHA received the medal “Deutsches Kreuz in Silber” for organizing war defenses by managing 40,000 SS men, who guarded 15 large concentration camps and over 500 sub-camps that in total held around 750,000 prisoners.

Libiąż was liberated. In the sub-camp Janinagrube there were around 60 prisoners, who were left behind during the evacuation due to the ter-rible state of their health. The Poles who lived in the vicin-ity of the camp were the fi rst to offer help to the prisoners. The gravely ill were taken to hospitals and those in better health were left at the sub-camp, where they slowly re-turned to good health.

At 14:00 a unit of SD arrived at the women’s camp BIIe, as well as the men’s camp BIIf in Birkenau, and ordered all Jews to come out of the bar-racks. In camp BIIf, Kapo Schulz, identifi ed and forced Jews out of the barracks. The Jews were taken outside the camp gates, around 150 males and 200 females. Several Jews were taken behind the Block-führerstube barrack and shot.

Another SD unit entered the Auschwitz Stammlager. All sick prionsers were told to leave the blocks and come near the gate with the sign “Arbeit macht frei”. German citizens were told to stand in the front, behind them the rest of the non-Jews, and fi -nally the Jews. The Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners who could not walk were left aside, separately. While the prisoners were being di-vided into groups, a vehicle full of SS men arrived. After exchanging a few words, the leader of the SD unit ordered the prisoners back to their blocks. The SD unit hurriedly drove away, along with the SS men.


At 1:00 at night, a unit of SS whose job was to destroy criminal evidence blew up crematorium number V in Birkenau, which was the last one left standing.


Saturday, at around 9:00 in the morning, the fi rst Soviet soldier from the reconnais-sance unit of the 100th Infan-try Division appeared at the hospital in the Monowitz sub-

camp. A half hour later, the entire unit arrived and hand-ed out the bread that they had to the sick. The unit promised to send army doctors to the sub-camp. The same day, a military doctor, whose rank was captain, arrived in Mono-wice and started to organize relief. All together, out of the 850 sick left behind during the evacuation from the sub-camp, over 200 prisoners died on 27 January.

In the afternoon, Soviet sol-diers headed toward the region of the Auschwitz Stammlager and Birkenau camp; the fi rst of them en-countered resistance put up by retreating German units. In the direct fi ghting to liber-ate the camps of Monowitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, town of Oświęcim and its surround-ings, all together 231 Soviet soldiers lost their lives—two of those were killed just outside the Auschwitz Stammlager gate. One of them was Second Lieutenant Gilmudin Bad-ryevich Bashirov.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, the fi rst groups of Soviet recon-naissance troops entered the camps in Brzezinka and Oświęcim, where the liber-ated prisoners joyfully greet-ed them. After removing the mines from the surround-ing area, soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front, brought freedom to the prisoners still clinging to life. At the main camp lay 48 and in Birkenau 600 bodies of male and female prisoners, who were either shot by the SS or died in the last days of the camps existence.

The moment Red Army sol-diers entered Auschwitz I, II, and III there were over 7,000 sick and exhausted prisoners in these camps. According to fi ndings by Dr. Otto Wolken, who stayed at the camp as a doctor and was one of the fi rst organizers of help for prison-ers and was one of the fi rst to safeguard evidence that docu-mented the crimes committed by the SS at Auschwitz-Birk-enau, there were: 1,200 sick prisoners in Auschwitz, 5,800 in Birkenau, of which 4,000 were women, and 600 sick and ill in Monwitz.


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Over 200 children were liberated at Auschwitz

A fi lm frame from the liberation chronicle

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Wolfgang Templin was born in 1948 in Jena (in former East Germany). He studied, among other things, philoso-phy. In the 1970s he was a young communist activist and secret collaborator with the Stasi (1970-1974). At the beginning of the 1980s, he left the party and became in-volved in the human rights movement in East Germany. He co-founded the opposi-tion group “Initiative for Peace and Human Rights (Initiative Frieden und Men-schenrechte). East German authorities forced him to move to West Germany. Af-ter the changes in 1989, he re-turned to his roots and took part in the group “Alliance 90” (Bündnis 90). To this day, he works on shedding light on the history of Easter Germany. He does so as a re-searcher and in co-operation with the Federal Commis-sioner for the Stasi Archives (BStU). On the 6 November 2009, this opponent of the East German regime re-ceived the Dialogue Prize.

While leading talks with his German guest, Leszek Szuster, introduced Wolf-gang Templin’s biography, and highlighted how little is known of the opposition against East Germany in the consciousness of Poles, as well as the real need to “debunk” the stereotypes of Polish-East German re-lations. During the meet-ing, there was a discussion, among other things, about the change in the mentality of Germans following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Tem-plin said that the symbolism of this event was crowned by the democratic opposition in

Poland, Czechoslovakia, and in Hungary that had been striving for years. He empha-sized that“ everything start-ed in Gdańsk, and the role of Solidarity in the process of democratic change in Europe cannot be overemphasized.”

Another part of the discus-sion were the repercussions in Europe tied to the events of 9 October 1989. Emphasis was placed on the paradox that the fall of the Wall was accompanied by tension and a rift in German-German re-lations, which had an impact on, among others, the differ-ing economic situations and disputes about the poltitics of history, as well as in the context of the vetting and ac-countability for the period of communist dictatorship.

An interesting issue was the double entanglement of East Germans: both in the Nation-al-Socialist past (40 years of historical lies and silence), as well as in active participation in the structures of the police state.

Lively discussion, in which the Polish-German audience participated, complimented the important topics raised by Wolfgang Templin. The special character of this meet-ing was the consequence of the array of participants: a group of police offi cers from Düsseldorf, a group of young people from Rostock, the citizens of Oświęcim and the surrounding county, as well as volunteers and em-ployees of the IYMC.

The European Conversations at the IYMC are a series of meet-ings that have taken place a number of years, to which the IYMC invites well known personalities and authorities from the world of culture, politics, and social life. Dur-ing the discussions, current issues are discussed along with their problems and threats, as well as opportuni-ties and hopes. Participants of European Conversations have so far been: Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Hans Koschnick, British writer or Japanese descent Kazuo

Ishiguro, Professor Reinhold Würth, art expert and phi-lanthropist, Professor Józef Szajna - former prisoners of the concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald, painter, screenwriter, direc-tor, and playwright, as well as Zofi a Posmysz—prisoner of Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and Neustadt-Glewe, jour-

nalist, writer (of works Pas-senger and Holiday on the Adriatic), author of radio programs and reports. The organization of European Conversations at the IYMC has been supported from its beginning by the Town and County of Oświęcim.

Leszek Szuster

EUROPEAN CONVERSATIONS WITH WOLFGANG TEMPLIN

On December 4, the International Youth Meeting Center in co-operation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Poland and the House for Polish-German Co-Opera-tion invited German dissident, Wolfgang Templin. The meet-ing, entitled 1989. Fall of the Iron Curtain. Berlin without the Wall. Europe without walls? took place as part of the series of European Conversations at the IYMC.

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Wolfgang Templin

Openning the meeting

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This third artistic project has been done in co-opera-tion with the Model—Art—Space—Remembrance Project. This time, photography was to play the biggest role: the taking of photos was to make it possible for young people to personally come in contact with history, con-front it on the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and to learn to cope with the learned facts.

Brigit Kammerlohr, artist from Berlin, taught the par-ticipants the secrets of pho-tographic techniques and led the workshop in such a way that the young peo-ple could fi nd within them-selves both the artist and photojournalist. During the project, photographing was to become a passion for each of the participants.

The photography was to ful-fi ll many functions during the several-day program: the camera functioned as a tool for getting to know and discovering the authentic site, while at the same time searching for and fi nding, in the context of this place, another person. The fi n-ished photos showed the experience and emotions of the participants. At the same time, the integrating aspect of the meeting of young Poles and Germans was not irrelevant. The photography was excel-lent at playing the role of a middleman, communicator between the participants, who while photographing

were observing, document-ing gestures with the cam-era and, creating portrait photos. The title Two People, One Photograph is the short explanation of the project’s concept. The Polish-German pairs received one cam-era and worked together throughout the entire work-shop from searching for themes, choosing pictures, to the form of presentation of their work. Each pair, in the end, created their own work. As a result, the ex-hibition was created in the photomontage style and the pictures were cut out for newly created dioramas. The photos in the dioramas tell us about boys and girls, Poles and Germans, about their contact with and un-derstanding of history, as well as their meeting here.

During projects: either the photography or earlier ones—such as the writing workshop, the September one about artistic freedom that included young peo-ple taking part in theatrical work—art is never the only goal but only a pretext to get to know history, meet other young people, and get to know their differing per-spectives on history. Once again this type of work has proven itself to be an effec-tive educational help.

Artistic work cannot be a substitute for real historical knowledge, so the program also includes a tour of the Museum. An especially im-portant part of the program

is a meeting with a former Auschwitz prisoner. Invited to speak this time was Wil-helm Brasse, who worked in the camp records depart-ment as a photographer and took pictures when ordered by the SS to do so. The young people were moved by the fact about how the concentration camp experi-ence and the work he did there had an impact on the postwar life of Wilhelm Brasse, who never returned to his passion—photogra-phy.

Much of what we know about concentration camps comes from historical pho-tographs. That’s why we also decided to take a look at the documentary photo-graphs, which are found in the collection of the Ausch-witz-Birkenau State Mu-seum Archive. During the workshop, the young partic-ipants were confronted with the question of the link be-tween the photograph and the object, the moment, and situation that has been cap-tured. The participants tried to categorically present cop-ies of the historical photos from the perspective of why they were taken, as well as who was photographed and who the photographers were. Next, participants re-ceived information in the form of documents, prisoner testimony, as well as histori-cal research that gave them more information about the topic of a group of related photographs.

The participants, prepared in this manner, could visit the terrain of the former concentration camp and look at the pictures famil-iar to them from the exhibit from a different perspec-tive. At the same time, they were equipped with single use cameras: they could photograph the objects, which were the backdrop to their personal experi-ences and emotions. One of the participants following the seminar wrote: Creating a collage of photographs, I had taken myself, helped me show that, which was so terrifying in the camp. Simultaneously, I could show my sorrow and

that I want to remember about Auschwitz and remember those who lost their lives here. I was able to take photographs of ob-jects, people, those that were important to me, and then put

the pictures together to my lik-ing, trying to create some kind of a story and at the same time show my feelings at the given time.

Teresa Miłoń-Czepiec

On November 23 we welcomed yet another group of seminar participants at the doors of the IYMC. To-gether with a group of German youth from Zedenik, near Berlin, and young Poles from Siemiatycze, we started a seven-day project entitled: Two People, One Photograph.

TWO PEOPLE, ONE PHOTOGRAPHTHE POLISH-GERMAN

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT


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The seminar Auschwitz and the Holocaust from the Perspec-tive of Women, which took place 21-29 November 2009, was organized by the IYMC for the fi fth time. This year, 23 students from Poland and Germany were invited to work together during the seminar. The topic of the seminar was connected to research, which is opening new and wider perspec-tives in how women’s fate is viewed with the backdrop of the history of National So-cialism and the Holocaust. Here, two questions can be refl ected upon—the ques-tion about the role of women and their involvement in the apparatus of the Nazi regime and about the meaning of their presence in the struc-ture of concentration and death camps.

During the seminar, partici-pants analized the topic both from the perspective of the female perpetrators, as well as victims of National So-cialism. They also had the extraordinary experience to speak to a witness of histori-cal events, Zofi a Posmysz, former prisoner of Ausch-witz, Ravensbrück, and Neustadt-Glewe, who after the war became a respected writer and radio journalist.

The seminar started with friendship building and in-tegration activities for the Polish-German group: get-ting to know each other in the context of one’s biogra-phy, similarities and differ-ences between us consider-ing social and background

differences, we analyzed what shapes our identity and what role “gender” plays in it.

“Gender” refers to the so-cially shaped roles of women and men, which are assigned according to sex. In Polish, the word “gender” is often explained as the identity of the sex. The role of the sexes depends on the exist-ing socio-economical, po-litical, and cultural context. Other factors also have an infl uence on it, for example, social class, sexual orienta-tion, and age. Sexual roles are ingrained and can differ greatly between cultures, as well as within a single cul-ture. Sexual roles are malle-able, however biological sex cannot change.

In the Polish-German groups we discussed our experienc-es so far connected with the topics of National Socialism and the Holocaust, with em-phasis on the differences in family narratives, historiog-raphy, and pubic debates in Poland and Germany. These activities allowed us to build between ourselves an at-mosphere of mutual trust and understanding, which led to more intense work on the topics during the entire week of the seminar. Be-fore lectures, presentations, tours, fi lm viewings, analy-sis of archival documents, and meetings with wit-nesses to history, we asked ourselves: what role did the category of “gender” play in the racial assumptions of National Socialism? Did, and

to what degree, the category of “gender” play a role in the defi nition of perpetrator and responsibility for National Socialist crimes? Is includ-ing the category of “gender” justifi ed in research on Na-tionalism Socialism and the Holocaust?

We started the analysis from the perspective of female perpetrators. The fi rst lecture was given by a political sci-entist from the University of Leipzig, Dr. Elisabeth Kohal-hass, who shed light on the place women held in Ger-man society during National Socialism and with particu-lar emphasis on motivations, tasks, and responsibilities of women in the structure of the NS regime and in the Gestapo. Participants of the seminar were next acquainted with the biography of selected SS female overseers, and their role and duties in the Ausch-witz concentration camp structure. Halina Jastrzębska from the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau did a presentation on this topic. The victims’ perspective opened with the showing of the extremely realistic fi lm entitled The Last Stage, made in 1947 by a former pris-oner Wanda Jakubowska. A study tour of the former

concentration camp, lectures on forced prostitution in the Third Reich, among others, and individual work with archival documents showing women’s participation in the camps and in the resistance movement near them, deep-ened the knowledge of the participants and prepared them for a meeting with a

witness to events, Zofi a Pos-mysz.

With great interest, partici-pants listened to Joanna Os-trowska’s lecture, a PhD from Jagiellonian University Jewish Studies department in Cra-cow, on the subject of: Prostitu-tion as forced labor for women in Nazi concentration camps.

AUSCHWITZ AND THE HOLOCAUST FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF WOMEN

The history of women in concentration and death camps has so far been collected and studied in a fragmentary way. Women and men in the camps found themselves in the same living conditions, however the level of terror that existed there differed for the various prisoner catagories, and the prisoners’ sex also determined how it was experienced.

Zofi a Posmysz (born in 1923 in Cracow) is an author of four books about Auschwitz: Pasażerka (1962), Wakacje nad Adriatykiem (1970), Ten sam doktor M. (1982) and Do wolności, do śmierci, do życia (1996).A long time passed before Zofi a Posmysz decided to write her fi rst novel about the camp. After the time spend in camps—from Auschwitz she was evacuated to Ravensbrück, and then to Neustadt-Glewe—she tried to make up for the lost time and complete her education. When the war broke out Zofi a Posmysz was a student of high-school of commerce. The arrest and imprisonment (fi rst at Montelupich prison in Cracow, and then concentration camps) interrupted her illegal education. As she could not fi nd work in Cracow after the war, she moved to Warsaw. She graduated in 1946 and later received her diploma of Polish Philology at Warsaw University. She started work at the literary section of Polish Radio. She has worked on numerous radio plays and features that later became a starting point of interesting extended pieces of literature. Theme of the camp fi rst appeared in a radio play Pasażerka which later, after many changes, was published as a book in 1962.

ZOFIA POSMYSZ

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Zofi a Posmysz, former prisoner of Auschwitz

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The seminar ended with a trip to Cracow, where rep-resentatives of the Women’s Space Foundation led us on a

trail of Cracow’s Polish and Jewish emancipated women. Following the end to the in-tensive seminar work at the

IYMC, participants started to prepare a Polish-German publication, which will ap-pear in September of 2010,

thanks to the fi nancial sup-port of the Polish-German Co-operation Foundation.

Ela Pasternak

The seminar was made possible through the fi nancial support

of Polish-German Youth Co-operation.

(…) If we want to measure the degree of women’s participa-tion in the National Socialist regime and their contribution to the politics of repression and racial policy, we must look through the magnifying glass at their activities in the public realm: especially their professional activities and those relating to the mobiliza-tion for war (those German women, who did not suffer repression and functioned as “Aryan” women in that so-ciety. [Volksgemeinschaft − note E. P.])

Research on the history of women on this topic took off at the beginning of the 1990s. Earlier, that is in the 1980s, research into women’s his-tory caused an eruption of a so-called “female historian’s dispute”. This had to do with the morally based question: Did women play an active role during National Social-ism and can they share the responsibility for National Socialist crimes? The assump-tion was contrary to that women should be seen fi rst of all as victims of extremely patriarchal and oppressive system.

At the start of the 1990s the perspective on the history of women changed about how they are seen during the times of National Socialism. Historian Gisela Bock put this changed perspective this way: It is apparent… that in most cases, the active partici-pation of women in National Socialist racial politics was part of their activities outside the home: their leading role in women’s and girl’s organi-zations, their better or worse professional activity, or their

willingness to leave factory and offi ce jobs to further their professional careers (…). These activities, outside the home, shaped women’s role in the system (…).

Today, we know that during National Socialism women were active subjects, respon-sible and active in a wide and varying spectrum. That is, in the spectrum, which was far wider than the sphere of marriage and motherhood as-signed to women. In almost every place where repression and murder took place wom-en were present.

The focus of research in recent years is the issue of women and the SS, especially those who worked as SS female overseers in concentration and extermination camps, primarily in the women’s concentration camp in Raven-sbrück. The Waffen SS em-ployed these women. They were not members of the SS, which is why we mainly call them SS female overse-ers (SS Aufseherinnen). The research has lead to the crea-tion of a new and permanent exhibition on the subject of these women’s service at the Ravenbrück Memorial Site. In total we are talking about around 4,000 SS female over-seers. The newest research also describes the so-called fe-male SS helpers (SS Helferin-nen) and wives of SS men. Re-search is currently available about a group of specially ideologically trained women: in the spring of 1942, a female SS group was formed, the so-called female SS helpers corps (SS Helferinnenkorps). To achieve this goal, a training center for female SS liaisons

was established in Elsass. In this school, following the guidelines, specifi cally cho-sen women were prepared to work in the professional and private sphere within the so-called Sippengemeinshaft SS Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, wanted to form a fe-male SS unit that was unques-tioning, loyal, and brimming with the ideals and spirit of National Socialism.

The female SS unit was to be a sort of convent within the Sip-pengemeinschaft SS—in total, around 3,000 so-called female SS helpers. Recently, there have also been discussions—taking into account the per-spective of “gender”—about women who took part in the German occupation in East-ern Europe. Elisabeth Har-vey’s work should be noted here on the subject of the so-called people’s political serv-ice (“volkstumpolitischer Ein-satz”) performed by young German women fascinated by the ideology. Harvey’s re-search is entitled Women and the Nazi East. Agents and Wit-nesses of Germanization.

These girls and young wom-en worked in preschools, as teachers, advisers in villages that were in the territories incorporated into the Third Reich and the occupied Polish territories, where the goal was the practical implemen-tation of the policy of Ger-manization. They belonged to the League of German Girls (BDM) and National Socialist Women’s League (NS Frau-enschaft), or they did service in the east as students. They helped the so-called Volks-deutsche take residence in the “cleansed” homes that

had belonged to Jews and Poles, they supported and educated them in the spirit of National Socialism, organ-ized preschools, and taught in schools. It is impossible to determine the exact number of these women.

Finally, recent research on the topic of so-called female Wermacht helpers (Wehr-machthelferinnen) should be mentioned. This was a large group, we can assume, that it consisted of around 500,000 women functioning as typ-ists, telephone operators, te-legraphers, and supported the Wehrmacht during the war in all of Europe. These women are considered to have taken an active and indi-rect part in the war. Recently, an interesting text was found describing the work of these women, as the phenomenon of “the expansion of wom-en’s help”. This shows that women’s contribution to the Nazi regime, the Holocaust and the war remained in the classically feminine sphere of assistance, but the defi nition of that assistance in terms of National Socialism strongly changed, taking on a patho-logical form.

Another interesting group worthy of attention are wom-en employed by the Gestapo. This group of women con-tributed to persecution and Nazi racial policy by doing seemingly trivial profes-sional work. These women were clerks in offi ces and in the administration. It would be a mistake to treat women working in the services of the Gestapo only as cogs in the machine. At the same time, we would trivialize their role,

position, and work relieving them of responsibility. For most of these women, they work they did in the service of the Gestapo were not du-ties that were performed in extraordinary circumstances. This would have been the norm for them; normal work that gurenteed a good salary and a stable job in the secu-rity services, was attractive work. The women working in the Gestapo were not the deciding actors in the work-ings of the organization. They took part in the functioning of the police apprentice from a lower level. They had a se-cure place in this organiza-tion, which could not have functioned without them. They also made decisions in the position of subordinates about the spheres of activities and the possibilities of deci-sions made.The participation of women in the National Socialist sys-tem was different than that of men. They took on different activities, women worked as subordinates in the hierarchy and their work was character-ized by less physical violence. These contributions consisted not only of bureaucratic ac-tivities. These conclusions lead us to consider women’s clearly shared role as per-petrators. In the case of men and women operating in the Nazi dictatorship, includ-ing those women working in the Gestapo, the statement by Hanna Arendt is justify-able: In the Third Reich, there were not many people who whole heartedly supported the later crimes of the regime, however, there existed a huge number of those who were absolutely ready to support the regime. (…)

FRAGMENT OF DR. ELISABETH KOHLHAAS’ LECTURE

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Jewish Center

THE HOLOCAUST THROUGH THE EYES OF YOUNG PEOPLE—A DIFFERENT

PERCEPTION, BUT THE SAME MESSAGEPART 2. OPINIONS OF FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS ABOUT THE REMEMBRANCE

OF THE HOLOCAUST IN FRANCE AND AUSTRIA


Understanding of the vari-ous events of the past, the so-called culture of memo-ry, depends on the extent as well as form of public exposure of the specifi c his-torical event. The next most important element shaping the culture of memory is the way that the role of a given society is looked at histori-cally. This causes the rise of a variety of national myths. The culture of memory also depends on evolutionary changes, which can in effect be a breakthrough in the way history is perceived. The second part of this ar-ticle about a nation’s cul-tural memory is based on conversations with Thomas (France), Daniel (Austria), and Sebastian (Austria). These young people cur-

rently work in Oświęcim as volunteers—the fi rst two in the Jewish Center and the third at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Thomas studied foreign languages, with an empha-sis on inter-cultural rela-tions and international co-operation, in his hometown of Lille before he became a volunteer at the Jewish Center. While studying he also worked as a city tour guide. In his work he met many tourists from various countries and often had to answer many questions about the large number of foreigners in Lille. These questions, mainly from young people, gave the impression of hostility to foreigners and the fear of

the unknown. In his opin-ion, their attitude was in-fl uenced by the views and politics of far right political parties. He heard about the Jewish Center in Oświęcim from an acquaintance and decided immediately to devote his time to political education within the Euro-pean Voluntary Service. So, this “newly minted” gradu-ate came to Oświęcim. The tragedy that took place in Auschwitz clearly shows where racism and xeno-phobia can lead—and that is how Thomas justifi es the choice of this place.

In France, during the Sec-ond World War, people didn’t really have a clear idea what they were sup-posed to do and how they

were to approach the Ger-man occupiers. “After the liberation, it turned out that all the citizens were against the occupation and were willing to fi ght,”says Thomas. In his opinion the building of national iden-tity in France is too concen-trated on emphasizing the merits of the brave people who stood up to the terror of World War II. Ignoring the fact that in addition to “wicked collaborators,” the majority of society was completely passive and in-vested all their energies in taking care of only them-selves—“just to survive.”

After losing the battles in 1940, France, until the Al-lied invasion, remained passive and divided. The Vichy government was brought into being and controlled the “free” part of France, while cooperating with the German occupier. Under the leadership of the deputy prime minister and Marshal Philippe Pètain, who was sympathetic to Hitler, they signed a ceasefire on June 22, 1940 and gave up nearly 2/3 of French territory to be un-der German occupation. In 1942 they “recruited” thousands of forced labor-ers to work for the Third Reich and helped register, arrest, and deport Jews who lived in France (the deportation of French citizens who were of the Jewish faith was moved to 1943). Already in October of 1940 in Vichy, there was a host of discrimatory laws in place against French Jews. Most French were, of course, against this and answered the call of Gen-eral Charles de Gaulle, who, from London, ap-pealed for an uprising. As a result, from May of 1943 various insurgent groups, cooperated with the Na-tional Resistance Council (Conseil National de Ré-

sistance).When the Second World War ended in France, there were many trials against collaborators, who were found guilty; among them were members of the Vichy government. Museums and anniversaries commemo-rate the heroic deeds of the population active in the re-sistance movement and the many victims of Nazism. In addition to the commemo-ration on January 27 of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, France commemorates the anni-versary of the deportation of French Jews by the Vichy government. This occurs on a Sunday in mid-July, and recalls the victims of rac-ist and anti-Semitic crimes of France. („La journée na-tionale à la mémoire des victimes des crimes rac-istes et antisémites de l’État français”). Remeberance of the Holocaust is on a large scale in France, which is noticeable both in art, as well as in history lessons. “What I would have pre-ferred to from my teachers, however, would have been an explanation of how such unforgettable crimes could have even taken place. In general, how did people such as Hitler rise so quick-ly to power in such a short amount of time and make the anti-Semitic policies, so hostile to humanity, so popular?” said Thomas. These words can be aimed at history teachers in all countries.

Toward the end of the in-terview, Thomas stated proudly that public lies about the Holocaust, as well as racist and anti-Se-metic excesses are severely punished in France. He is, however, disappointed that ever since September 11, 2001, there has been a rise in attacks on Jewish, as well as Muslim institutions, and that the confl ict in the

During the recent commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War we noticed how differently those events are viewed in different European countries. This inspired me to discuss this with seven volunteers representing four European countries. I wanted to get an answer to the question of how the subject of the Holocaust, as well as other events that occurred during the World War II are seen in their countries. I was also interested in the way the general infl uenced perception in their given countries the impact of volunteering at the memorial site.

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Center of Remembrance in Oradour

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Jewish CenterOś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 13, January 2010

Middle East has escalated. These incidents are used by far-right populists, who use them to lay blame on the Muslim minority group and other immigrants.

The volunteers from Austria are of the opinion that dur-ing the Second World War, their society was mainly on the side of the perpetrators. Twenty two–year–old Dan-iel and nineteen–year–old Sebastian decided to vol-unteer in Oświęcim—the former at the Jewish Center and the latter at the Ausch-witz-Birkenau State Mu-seum. Both feel a historical responsibility to work in these types of institutions. The Second World War, in all its horrifying detail, is not just present in their grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ stories, but also a part of their country’s political culture.

The effects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the “great depression” that swept the world caused the rise in political extrem-ism in the inter-war period. After Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1935, the country became more iso-lated from other countries, while strengthening its con-tacts with Hitler, the infl u-ence that the Third Reich had on the spheres govern-ing (Austria) grew. After Austrian nationalists found themselves in key political positions, the annexation of Austria into the Third Reich could happen with-out a confl ict. Many Aus-trians accepted this event positively. In the following years, German Nazis mur-dered around 65 thousand citizens of Jewish descent, as well as 12.7 thousand who were against the re-gime and insurgents. Over 8 thousand Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, and disabled individuals, were also not spared. Around 100 thou-sand people took part in the fi ght against Nazism, but some seem to forget that a large percentage of the population worked for the occupier. War criminals can also be found among Austrians. Even the civilian population took part in at-tacks on the Jewish minor-ity. Many citizens quietly hoped that through nation-al organization, but also, “by their own initiative” they could improve their own fi nancial situation.

After the end of the Second World War in the wave of denazifi cation, over 200 high-ranking SS function-aries were put before the court and removed from government functions. For

a long period of time, the “victim myth” dominated society—that Austria was the “fi rst victim” of Nazi aggression—was fi nally somewhat put into perspec-tive at the end of the 1980s. A deciding moment turned out to be a major scandal, that involved presidential candidate, later president, Kurt Walheim, who during the Second World War was an offi cer in the Wermacht and took part in war crimes in the Balkans. Sebastian and Daniel feel that since the time of the scandal, re-membrance of WWII seems to be more alive and far reaching.

The young volunteers em-phasize that the culture of memory is properly treated in Austria. It is signifi cant to note the fact that virtu-ally every student is re-quired to visit the site of the former concentration camp at Mauthausen. In addition, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is com-memorated there, and for refl ection there are also a number of memorials, plac-es of national remembrance, exhibits and documentary fi lms that are available all year long. The subject of the Holocaust also affects the alternative culture scene. Daniel notes however, that sometimes artists use pro-vocative subjects, looking for “cheap exposure.”

Daniel believes that in Austria, not everyone is yet prepared to face his-tory head on. In some small towns there are protests against building stones of remembrance (Stolper-stein), which were men-tioned in the last article. Indeed, not everyone saw this act of commemorating the victims of Nazism as necessary. Sebastian points out that people, especially the older through their own direct or indirect support for the SS, are reminded of their guilt. He mentioned that there has been a pub-lic debate recently in Aus-tria concerning the sense of punishing of elderly and of-ten sick war criminals. This discussion was brought about by the case of John Demjanjuk, who was ac-cused of co-operation with the Nazis. Daniel, summing up, notes that in Austria be-cause of their participation and often unspoken, public opinion on the distinction between perpetrators and victims of confl ict is divid-ed. As opposed to Austria, other European countries can feel that they were vic-tims of Nazism to a greater degree.

Julia Preidel

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“WHERE TO, WHERE TO? WHERE TO?... STRAIGHT AHEAD.” IN OTHER WORDS,

WHAT WAS LEFT OF IN US THE WARDROBE

Jewish Center Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 13, January 2010

When I ask Monika Kufel what her inspiration for The Wardrobe (a play that men-tions “who,” or actually “what” is its main actor), she has a simple response. Dur-ing her second year at the PWST in Wrocław, Monika read Olga Tokarczuk’s The

Wardrobe. This was the fi rst inspiration. Then came the idea to show this wardrobe in the form of a thesis play. Monika worked on the text, wrote her own screenplay (in cooperation with Marcin Biały), and added fragments of Tuwim’s famous Locomo-tive. This is how The Ward-robe—a monodrama about a Jewish girl during the Sec-ond World War, who hides in a wardrobe, to escape the threat of death at the

hands of the Nazis outside. A unique play is created. It can be said that it came to be unique by “accident” because it was supposed to be a play created for gradu-ating the Wrocław theater school, but what came out was a mature and profes-

sional play, that has been given several honors and has been hailed by both crit-ics and audiences alike.

The Wardrobe had its pre-miere in Tarnów in 2004. The symptoms of its unique-ness started to show right after that. Still in that year, Monika Kufel received a special award at the 32nd Polish Single-Actor Theater Festival in Wrocław, next she received another such

award at the International Festival “European Actor” in Macedonia (2005), the Festival of Modern Drama in Warsaw (2005), recog-nition at the Festival of Unique Theater in Lublin (2006), and so on. However, these awards are not what make The Wardrobe. It is the reactions of audiences that do this better.

The authors of The Wardrobe emphasize that for them the realness of The Wardrobe, are moments when—af-ter it is over—people ap-proach them, those who lived through the night-mare of war and have truly found themselves in this play. Monika Kufel tells of a situation that took place in Oświęcim. When The Wardrobe came to an end, a certain older gentleman approached her and said “That’s how it really was. But in my case, it was a sofa.”

What is hidden in the the-atrical wardrobe? Ana and Monika say that this single wardrobe can have very many meanings. And it has—because it can be read in many different (which doesn’t mean in better or worse) ways. Everyone has his or her own key to this wardrobe. The power of the play is awash in sym-bolism. It is a deep mine of meanings and it is the sen-

sitivity of the viewer and it depends on how much they can identify with the histo-ry presented, it depends on what hidden symbols the viewer fi nds hidden in the wardrobe.

For someone Jewish, this may refl ect the place where the Torah scrolls are kept in the synagogue (the same place, after all, bears the name “Aron ha Kodesh”), for a Christian it may be the

altar (anyone who has even once been in the church of St. Mary in Cracow and has seen the Stoss altar knows that its appearance re-sembles a large wardrobe, whose doors, depending on whether they are open or closed, depict the differ-ent situations in the life of Jesus and Mary). For those deported to concentration camps, it can be the cramped and well-sealed freight car. This image is further en-hanced by recited fragments of Tuwim’s Locomotive by

Monika Kufel, which takes on another meaning, when we remember the Jewish background of the author. The ladder standing to one side becomes a railway for a moment, which led these locomotives of death to places such as Treblinka or Auschwitz. In this world, every object is an actor who speaks to us from the stage.

What else is the wardrobe? It can refer to being with-drawn, separating oneself, in an attempt to escape from painful past experi-ences, which are hidden deep within us, as the win-ter jacket at the bottom of the wardrobe. Among those who survived the war are those who won’t talk about the trauma that they expe-rienced—they are hiding it within themselves, making sure that in no way will it become a part of their chil-dren or grandchildren’s ex-perience.

Ana Nowicka—director of the monodrama, born in Oświęcim—remembers the testimony of Tadeusz Jakubowicz, Chairman of the Jewish community in Cracow who, during WWII, was a prisoner of Auschwitz. The chairman receives an invitation for

the play, however, politely notes that he can stay for only a short time, because the same evening he is also invited for a poetry reading and will have to leave dur-ing the play. “We of course understand and thank him for accepting the invita-tion,” says Ana. Jakubow-icz sits towards the edge, so that he can quietly leave and not disturb anyone. The wardrobe opens, the play has begun… 10 min-utes pass—he’s sitting. An-other 10 minutes pass—he

still sits. The play is coming to an end—the chairman is still present. Finally, after the play, Ana approaches him. “You know, madame, I couldn’t leave” said Ja-kubowicz. “Watching this, I felt that if I were to leave, it would have been a blas-phemy.”

Gabriela Nieśpielak

There are many items that, to us, can symbolize the Holocaust. Such a symbol may be an empty suitcase, a yellow patch in the shape of the Star of David, or the recently stolen (and luckily found) sign “Arbeit macht frei”. We will fi nd more of these symbols. Ana Nowicka and Monika Kufel: director and actor, respectively, of the monodrama that was put on for Oświęcim residents December 9, 2009, at the Jewish Center shows that the symbol can also be a simple Wardrobe.

Among those who survived the war are those who won’t talk about the trauma that they experienced—they are hiding it within themselves, making sure that in no way will it become a part of their children or grandchildren’s experience.

Monika Kufel tells of a situation that took place in Oświęcim. When The Wardrobe came to an end, a certain older gentleman approached her and said “That’s how it really was. But in my case, it was a sofa.”

Monika Kufel

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Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation

This year’s topic during the retreat was Hallowed be Thy name—Christian and Jew-ish prayer—the Our Father. In Hebrew—Kiddush Ha--Shem. Sisters have shown in depth that the prayer Our Father is rooted in Juda-ism and Rabbinic tradition, quoting Siduru Kaddish, or Jewish prayer book, and fi -nally the Mishnah. It shows that Jesus was a son of the Jewish nation, a faithful Jew from Galali who stud-ied the Torah—just as every Jewish child learns the al-phabet, reading the Torah. When I listened to lectures or read fragments of Jewish prayers, for the fi rst time I understood, just how much we are…In the text of the last Way of the Cross, which we take part in during every recol-lection, we read that the prayer Our Father could have arisen in the camp. This has always troubled me. In what sense and what frag-ment would fi t “most suit-ably” in camp reality. For many people, heaven from that time is closed and they cannot pray. How could this prayer have come out of this hell on earth? I would like to focus on this one as-pect—the sanctifi cation of God’s Name—Kiddush Ha--Shem. How Jews could do this, being brought by the thousands to their death in Birkenau? How could you glorify God’s Name walking straight from the ramp to the gas chamber? Kiddush Ha-Shem has now become a synonym of martyrdom for one’s faith. They all died

because they were Jews, in other words, those who ven-erate God for their presence on earth and for His faithful love for them, and through them for humankind. The Commandment to honor “Thy God” is found in the Torah and in the Holy Bible: “You shall not profane my Holy Name, to be sanctifi ed among the sons of Israel, I am the Lord who sanctify you” (Leviticus 22.32).

Another source for the commandment of Kiddush Ha-Shem is the verse from Deuteronomy, from which begins the fi rst paragraph of the Shema prayer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6.5). How-ever, there is also another religious category connected with the sanctifi cation of His Name. This is the Kid-dush Ha-Shem—sanctifi -cation of life. It appeared again during the Shoah, when Jews were threat-ened with total destruction. It was based on the attempts to save life, as long as it ex-isted. Rabbis said that as long as life exists, you must live… Perhaps in those days Kiddush Ha-Shem consist-ed in saving their dignity? How do we again reconcile the contradictions? Death as martyrs, along with the want to save lives.

Rabbi Shapiro from Piasec-zno, the author of the com-mandments that were read out in the Warsaw Ghetto, published later under the

title Holy Fire, believed that Kiddush Ha-Chaim has a mystical quality. He argued that during that time, God suffered, seeing the tragedy his people had to endure and He could not come with help, as He himself was deep in despair. Jews who suffered and later died had to support their Creator in His lonely anguish. Thus they took part in tikkun olam—repairing world that has been taken over by evil.

Every time I pray on the Way of the Cross in Birk-enau, I stay longer at the cre-matorium by Station seven. Testimony from the camp that I have read, talked of the sound of Jews singing psalms. Witnesses state that prayers could also be heard from the cell of Father Max-imillian Kolbe. What faith these people must have had… They honored God’s Name, but before they did that, they honored life and

because of their deeds (testi-mony) we know how to live aware and with dignity. So, did they complete tikkun olam? Since the Decem-ber recollections, honoring God’s Name for me has tak-

en on a new facet. It has be-come a way of testifying.

Sisters’ of St. Mary of Zion in Krakow website: www.insion.pl

Marta Titaniec

HALLOWED BE THY NAME —KIDDUSH HA-SHEM

Advent recollections have become a tradition with the Center of Dialogue and Prayer in co-operation with Sisters of St. Mary of Zion in Cracow. This year was no different. This is a meeting, that in accordance to its charismatic nature, shows God’s love for Israel. The Assembly is working mainly on the eradication of the effects of anti-Semitism and strengthening of Christian faith by exploring the Bible. For several years, the Sisters have lived in Poland, and have brought the Jewish religion to all who are interested.


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Sister Anne Denis and sister Anna on the roots of the Our Father prayer

Kaddish at the Jewish exibition at the Auschwitz Memorial

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History

PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL

VESTIGES OF HISTORYFROM THE COLLECTIONS

OF THE AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM

FROM GANOBIS’S CABINET

Born into a working-class family in Chrzanów on April 25, 1922, the daugh-ter of Andrzej and Józefa nee Rzeszutko. Her father died before the war and her

mother was left to raise her three daughters, of whom Helena was the oldest. Af-ter attending public school in Chrzanów, she enrolled in commercial school, and was also a member of the Sokół Gymnastics Society.She was seventeen when the war broke out. Fearing that she would otherwise be deported for slave labor in Germany, she took a job in 1940 at the cafeteria at the Brzeszcze coal mine. The cafeteria was run by the

parents of her friend Wanda Sztwiertnia, and Helena went to live with them. Here, she came into contact for the fi rst time with Auschwitz prisoners and the people who helped them, including the leader of the Polish So-cialist Party (PPS) Brzeszcze Group, Edward Hałoń. She also helped in the collection drives for food and medi-cine, and delivered parcels to agreed places in Budy, Rajsko, and Brzeszcze where prisoners labored.

She returned to Chrzanów in 1942 and took a job at the SS cafeteria in Oświęcim, located in “Haus 7,” a building near the Ausch-witz I-Main Camp. In the same building, there were offi ces where prisoners worked. The job enabled

Helena to maintain direct contact both with the pris-oners working in the offi ce and with the suppliers of merchandise to the cafete-ria. From this point on, she served as a courier between the PPS Brzeszcze Group and the camp. Her main duty was to relay secret messages. She also helped to prepare escapes from Auschwitz and passed on illegal correspondence be-tween prisoners and their

families. She also recruited her acauaintances to mail parcels to the camp, ad-dressed to prisoners whose names she supplied, during the time when this could be done offi cially. She re-mained active until January 22, 1945.After the end of the war, she worked in the Social Wel-fare Offi ce in Chrzanów, and also taught rhythmic gymnastics and dance at the schools there. She married Stanisław Szpak in 1946, and they had a daughter, Małgorzata. Helena Szpak retired in 1976. She lives in Chrzanów. In recogni-tion of her services, she has been decorated with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Poland Reborn.

HELENA DATOŃ

The word “signet” comes from the diminutive of the French word “sign”—signe. A signet was once a kind of seal in the form of a personal coat of arms or monogram attached to a ring or engraved directly on it. Generally worn by men, it was a personal symbol of its owner. It is not surprising that there are a relatively large number of signets, created by prisoners of Ausch-witz, in the Museum’ collection. In the dehumanized world of the camp, it was an expression of the struggle to maintain one’s iden-tity, and the desire to leave some trace of oneself behind.

Prisoners made these il-legally from metal that came from bells—camp gongs, silver coins, plas-tic, and even horsehair; these signets are priceless mementos. Monograms, camp numbers, and names of concentration camps are engraved on these, infor-mation about human fate. These also show the pris-

oners’ feelings—patriotic, religious, as well as those for other people. The white eagle, crown of thorns, and hearts can be found on them.

The signet, seen in the pic-ture, belonged to Czesław Ludwiczak, Auschwitz pris-oner with camp number 72124. He received it in

December 1942, when he worked as a carpenter in the workshop. It was made for him by prisoners who were metal workers from a silver spoon “for the good carpentry-metal work co-operation.” He hid the ring in the camp, and during the evacuation to other camps, among others, Buchenwald and Flossenbürg he hid it

on his body. On the signet next to the symbol KL Au, a prisoner triangle, the ini-tials “CL,” and his prisoner number.

Czesław Ludwiczak sur-vived, and in 1997 donated the signet to the Museum. He didn’t give the name of the creator, because as he said himself, he simply

doesn’t remember him. The ring from the spoon was treated as a precious treas-ure, passed through four concentration camps, and has become a SYMBOL of his suffering, as well as his strength and determina-tion.

Agnieszka Sieradzka, A-BSM Collections Department

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It was also said that sport competitions took place on the river. Today’s memoirs concern kayak races, which took place on 29 June 1933 in Oświęcim, not far from the castle. The same day was also the Dedication and Opening of a Scouts Village, as well as a national “Sea Holiday.” The program of the ceremony was quite full. “At 10:30, by the Scouts’ Vil-lage near the Soła: a dedica-tion of the kayak landing, done by Father J. Skarbek, speech.” A bit further, we read: “launching the kay-aks into the water and boat

parade; 16:00—kayak race on the Soła; 21:00 a bonfi re near the village, wreaths on the Soła, kayak parade and of those invited by organ-izers. “In the “Ekspres Ilustrow-any” newspaper from 2 June, we can read: “The scouting sailing team received land that was rented by them on the Soła, near the confl uence with the Vistula, by the sail-ing harbor being built by the National Department of Wa-terways (…) the scouts ar-rived immediately—to help the sailors level the terrain, on which the harbor was to

be fi nished the following week. It is worth mention-ing, that the sailing team was formed less than a year earlier, putting forward their work to one of the best sail-ing teams from the Cracow region.” The work relating to the building of the harbor, as well as the ceremony are described in detail in the old Scouting Chronicle. In this picture, a kayak paddle that was found not long ago is visible. The kayak belonged to Janina Pomietlarz and Pola Pomietlarz (later Pola Bukietyńska). The kayak, has unfortunately not been

preserved, like the kayak harbor by the castle; but in my the attic of my familial home the paddle had been

hidden away for many years before it ended up in my personal collection.

Mirosław Ganobis

The residents of Oświęcim spent their social life most often on the main square, as well as by the river Soła. From the mem-oirs of residents, it was possible to learn that there was lots of water in the river.

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On November 29, in connection to the seventieth anniversary of the destruction of the Great Synagogue, a graffi ti workshop took place at the Ausch-witz Jewish Center in Oświęcim. It was led by Dariusz Paczkowski, the co-founder of the Never Again Association, collaborator with: the Czarodzie-jska Góra Foundation and Tibetan Program of The Other Space Foundation.

PHOTO REPORT

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