I SSN 1899- 4407
PEOPLE
CULTURE
OŚWIĘCIM
HISTORY
MEMORY AND COMMEMORATION
IN THE ERA OF WEB 2.0
AUSCHWITZ/BUCHENWALD 2011
no. 28
April 2011
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Oś—Oświęcim, People,
History, Culture magazine
Editor:
Paweł Sawicki
Editorial secretary:
Agnieszka Juskowiak-Sawicka
Editorial board:
Bartosz Bartyzel
Wiktor Boberek
Jarek Mensfelt
Olga Onyszkiewicz
Jadwiga Pinderska-Lech
Artur Szyndler
Columnist:
Mirosław Ganobis
Design and layout:
Agnieszka Matuła, Grafikon
Translations:
David R. Kennedy
Proofreading:
Beata Kłos
Cover:
Paweł Sawicki
Miejsce Pamięci Buchenwald
Photographer:
Paweł Sawicki
EDITORIAL
This month, once again, we handed
over the pages of this monthly to the
young participants of the international project Memory and Commemoration
in the Era of Web 2.0. In the February issue we published articles that
came to be during workshops held in
Oświęcim. The second part of the project was held in March at the former
Buchenwald Concentration Camp
in Germany. The group effort, in the
form of an article, written under the
supervision of the chief editor of Oś,
can be found on the following pages.
The International Youth Meeting
Center, as every year, presented the
awards to its Good Spirits. This year’s
ceremony took place under the symbol of the seashell. In the Center, full
of the ocean-themed scenery, consisting of the various intricately shaped
and colored calcium carbonate wonders of nature, the donors and friends
of the IYMC came together. As to who
received an award, you learn from the
extensive report about the ceremony.
Before the War, where did the Chief
Rabbi of Oświęcim live? Down which
A GALLERY OF
THE 20TH CENTURY
The aroma of the hours, in the mirror of spring
The post-winter earth is selfish.
E
Easter… The joy of the victory of
faith and springtime. A time of
hope for the greenery and flowers.
Two in one: a religious theme and
that of the spring climate. And in
all this, for me, a warm and tender Easter is “more important and
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum
www.auschwitz.org.pl
PARTNERS:
Paweł Sawicki
Editor-in-chief
[email protected]
IMPRESSION
aster in the spring. This year, it is especially
a late spring event. Lent. Holy Week. Tomb of
the Lord. The Liturgy—first the sad and mournful, then the Resurrection, and the joyful procession.
In our city, in the old parish, an evening procession,
at the Salesian Church—and then an Easter Sunday
morning.
PUBLISHER:
streets did the Jewish inhabitants of
Oświęcim walk? These and many
other questions are answered in the
newest project carried out by the Jewish Center in Oświęcim—Oshpitzin.
This is already the 36th edition of Oś
in Polish, which means it is our third
birthday. We would like to thank you
very much for being with us.
better” than the winter-cold of
Christmas!
In the part of the article, a poem
with springtime and Easter
themes.
The day grows in intensity, a touch of light
The greenery has awoken in the fields.
The trees and maidens sparkle,
Among the rapidly feathering birds,
And the wind —Shepard of the grassland in the sky
Herds the clouds into enclosures of rain.
And the holidays are coming, a Lenten mood,
With nostalgia eating the biting horseradish,
And jumping onto the outdoor table
A bright sugary Holiday hare!
Andrzej Winogrodzki
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 Higher
Vocational School
ol
in Oświęcim
Editorial address:
„Oś – Oświęcim, Ludzie,
Historia, Kultura”
Państwowe Muzeum
Auschwitz-Birkenau
ul. Więźniów Oświęcimia 20
32-603 Oświęcim
e-mail: [email protected]
Photo: kasztelania.pl
www.pwsz-oswiecim.pl
The Salesian Church in 1914. Photo from Mirosław Ganobis’s collection
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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
LAST MEETING OF THE COUNCIL
OF THE MUSEUM IN THIS TERM
T
he last meeting of the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in its four-year term of office was
held. Council members unanimously approved a report on the activities of the Museum in 2010 and plans
for next year.
He talked about the biggest
current projects and plans
for the current year. Among
the topics discussed were a
steady increase in the number of visitors to the Memorial and the related project to
create a new Visitors Service
Center. Another important
area of discussion was the
restoration work and activities related to the creation
of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Foundation Perpetual Fund,
intended to fund them long
term.
The next item on the agenda
was a speech by Krystyna
Oleksy, director of the International Center for Educa-
MEMBERS
OF THE MUSEUM COUNCIL
Kazimierz Albin
Alicja Bartuś
Andrzej Bibrzycki
Prof. Tomasz Gąsowski
Prof. Jan Kantyka
Prof. Edward Kosakowski
Prof. Stanisław Krajewski
Piotr Kućka
Jerzy Wróblewski, Chairman
tion about Auschwitz and
the Holocaust, who spoke
about the projects carried
out by the ICEAH. Council
members raised concerns
about the real threat to the
development of the Center
for Education due to lack
of funds for the adaptation
of the so-called Old Theater
building for the future headquarters of the ICEAH. The
Museum tries to raise the
money needed in the fourth
stage of the Oświęcim Strategic Government Program,
Photo: Bartosz Bartyzel
One of the main subjects of
the meeting was the budgetary situation of the Memorial, deteriorating year by
year. At the beginning of
the meeting the director of
the Museum, Dr. Piotr M.
A. Cywiński, familiarized
the Council with the work
of the institution last year.
The Museum Council meeting
but still is not quite certain
whether this strategic investment will be included in
the OSGP.
The Museum Council is a
consultative body appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage
under the Law on museums.
It exercises supervision over
the statutory activities of
institutions and gives its
opinion on future plans of
action.
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A GIFT FROM VOLKSWAGEN
TO THE MUSEUM
T
he Auschwitz Memorial has received a Caravelle T5 car from Volkswagen. This valuable support for the work of
the Museum was made possible thanks to the help of the International Auschwitz Committee and the personal
involvement of its deputy chairman, Christoph Heubner. It is also a continuation of many years of cooperation
with Volkswagen AG.
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all know, is really very serious help,” noted Cywiński.
Emphasizing the uniqueness
of over twenty years of collaboration between the Memorial and the Volkswagen
company, including inter alia
visits of youth groups that
help with maintaining the
Memorial and at the same
time learn about its history.
Director Cywiński, addressing high school students of
the VW school, insisted: “For
us, your help is support for
different sections of our hard
work. I also believe that a
deeper knowledge of this
place will help you to settle different things in your
minds. It is really good that
VW has made this its policy,
its clear will. Thank you for
your presence and for your
willingness to help. Each little bit of help contributes to
securing the future of this
Place. We do this in part in
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memory of the victims, and in
part for future generations.”
“Our twenty years of cooperation means a lot for Volkswagen,” said the representative of the VW company, Ines
Doberanzke. “Young people
who come here, take some-
thing back with them. Later
they come back, and bring
their family and friends.
Youth work is a symbol, but
also practical help. We also
thank you heartily for your
cooperation and for what the
Museum does for us. Without
this, our project would not be
what it is today. Therefore, all
the more I am glad that today
we can give this car to the
Museum,” emphasized Ines
Doberanzke.
Photo: Bartosz Bartyzel
“We would like to pass on
the keys to the car,” Christoph Heubner said during the
ceremony of turning over the
car. “Here it will be able to be
used to care for former prisoners and the needs of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the
Holocaust,” added Heubner.
“I would like to thank you
for this gesture,” said Piotr
M. A. Cywiński, director
of the Auschwitz Museum.
“Of course the needs are
enormous and this support
is of the essence. You have
to remember that we are an
institution, away from big
university centers, away
from the airport. Arrivals of
former prisoners, various
experts and invited guests
require logistical assistance.
As this Place is growing and
its importance in the world
increases, this support, in
the budgetary situation we
Students of the VW School at the Memorial Site
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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
THE FIRST TRANSPORT OF POLISH WOMEN
O
n the morning of April 27, 1942, the Germans brought to Auschwitz the first transport of Polish women from
Montelupi Prison in Kraków. Most of the women from this transport were earlier arrested in Kraków for underground activities. A few hours later to Auschwitz, another transport of Polish women from Tarnów arrived.
Previously, on March 19, 1942, a transport of 144 women was brought to Auschwitz from the prison in Mysłowice.
According to accounts by former prisoners Władyslaw Siwek and Wiesław Kielar, all were shot at the Death Wall.
Below we publish a selection of prisoner testimonies from those brought in the first transport from Kraków.
kammer, where I worked in sorting and disinfecting clothing that remained after the transports were
gassed.
TERESA WICIŃSKA
camp number 6817
LUDWINA MAKUCH
camp number 6828
Statements Fond, vol. 83, pp. 138-139
… they loaded about 70 women (I was among them)
into an enclosed vehicle and we were taken away. Almost all of us were convinced that we were going to
the concentration camp in Oświęcim [Auschwitz].
We had heard about this camp before. Some of the
women in the transport were deluding themselves that
we were not being taken to Auschwitz, because there
was no camp for women there. Most of us, however,
viewed this with skepticism.
It turned out that our suspicions were unfortunately
accurate. We were driven out of the vehicle. We found
ourselves inside the Auschwitz camp. ... That, what
we saw, shook us to the core. One prisoner from our
transport, a Silesian woman named Julia Habryka said,
“Girls, here we’re not even going to make it a day.”
JÓZEFA KIWAŁA
camp number 6792
Statements Fond, vol. 14, p. 66
This was the first transport of Polish political prisoners. SS-Aufseherin Drexler received the transport,
and then the prisoners were escorted to block 2, where
they were robbed of their personal items, registered,
and given numbers. ... In the evening another transport of Polish women from Tarnów arrived, from
which Stenia Starostka was selected to be the block
elder, and subsequently she became the Lagerälteste.
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Statements Fond, vol. 43, pp. 46-47
KRYSTYNA WITEK (NEE)
Shortly after arrival we had our belongings taken
away, our personal details were written down, we
CYANKIEWICZ, camp number 6820
were put though the camp’s disinfection as well as
bath, and we were assigned some camp clothes—
Statements Fond, vol. 51, p. 3
striped uniforms and wooden clogs.
Hygienic conditions at the time were horrifying. The
insects proliferated to the unparalleled amounts, esLUDWINA MAKUCH
pecially the terrible plague of fleas. Sleep was somecamp number 6828
thing impossible. When we stood at roll call, fleas
immediately jumped onto the body. In a short time,
so many of them glued themselves onto us, that our
Statements Fond, vol. 83, pp. 138-139
The baths took place in block 3 or 4. Today I do legs looked black from far away. ... Almost all Polnot remember exactly. After that, we were issued ish women worked outside, most often employed in
striped uniforms and wooden clogs, and were herd- heavy labor. We walked a distance of up to 9 km
ed to block number 8. I inhabited the ground floor. in the direction of the old riverbed of the Vistula.
At that time, there already were the three-level We were employed in agricultural works, digging
bunk beds. Initially, we slept one to a straw-filled drainage ditches, and the dismantling of the houses
mattress, because there were still so few of us. ... of those who had been evicted.
Later, a transport arrived from Tarnów. The block
elder was a Polish woman from Silesia. Her name
was Lidia.
TERESA WICIŃSKA
camp number 6817
Statements Fond, vol. 43, pp. 46-47
After all the initial steps, which I described above,
were done, I was placed in block 8. We slept on
three-level bunks and sanitary situation, in comparison to that later experienced at Birkenau, was
good. While imprisoned at the Main Camp, for a
short period of time I worked at Buna.
JANINA TOLLIK
camp number 6804
Statements Fond, vol. 57, p. 66
In the beginning, they took us to carry out agricultural and earth works to Babice, and later to Budy.
For a relatively long time, I went to work in Pławy
and Harmęże. Large fishponds were found there. The
Statements Fond, vol. 83, pp. 138-139
prisoners worked there pulling weeds, cleaning the
Upon arrival at the camp we were not put through ponds as well as its banks. This work was very heavy
any kind of quarantine. Already on the second or and was carried out in the mud and water.
third day, we were sent to work. Initially, we were
working at digging ditches outside the camp. From
the camp to the place of labor it was about a 10
km march towards Brzeszcze. Later, we were put
to work cleaning the construction site of a factory,
probably Buna. We had to cut bushes, pull weeds,
and perform various other jobs.
LUDWINA MAKUCH
camp number 6828
TERESA WICIŃSKA
camp number 6817
Statements Fond, vol. 43, pp. 46-47
August 6, 1942, all women were transferred from
the Main Camp to the women’s camp at Birkenau. I
remember that it was a sweltering day. We marched
on foot, in rows of five. We were put into the brick
barracks. I was assigned to a barrack standing near
the kitchen—I do not remember the number. We
were horrified by the conditions that we experienced there. A shortage of water—one well for the
whole camp; around the barracks, endless, slippery
mud; barracks overfilled with female prisoners, the
bunk-bed compartments filled with damp straw. ...
At Birkenau, I started working in the camp kitchen.
After a month, I was transferred to the Effekten-
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During the summer I was employed in haymaking
on the banks of the old Vistula riverbed. On June
24, 1942, as part of so-called collective responsibility—that related to prisoner’s escape—I was put into
the penal company (Strafkompanie – SK) which,
at that time, was in a school building in Budy. The
time I spent in the SK was very difficult for me. ...
This is where—in the penal company—that I began
sketching scenes of camp life. I created a series of
sketches and paintings of landscapes, which surround the sad environs around Oświęcim. I wanted
to imprint these images in my memory.
ajs
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
REMEMBRANCE AND THE MEDIA
H
ow can today’s media help in maintaining the memory of the historical events of the Second World War? How
can images, text, and sound be used to speak about places such as Auschwitz and Buchenwald? And, in what
way can you use the accounts of eyewitness of those times today?
These are just some of the
questions that young participants involved in the international project Memory and
Commemoration in the Era of
Web 2.0 asked themselves.
The event took place this
year, first at the Auschwitz
Memorial Site, and later at
the former Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Participants
worked in four teams dealing
with the text, audio, video,
and Internet. The groups’
work was led by Oś Editor in
Chief, Paweł Sawicki. In the
February issue we first published the work done by the
participants. Now it is time
for further articles.
SOMETHING MORE THAN
REMEMBERANCE: ACTION!
W
Also passionate were the
four leaders of the workshop,
dealing with: the text, audio,
video and Internet—they
gave their time to work with
a group of “amateurs” in this
extraordinary project.
Leading the text preparation group was Paweł Sawicki, whom I asked what
he thought of those under
his care. Answering my “silly” question, he replied: “If
we take into account that all
participants are, first of all,
beginners as well as quite
busy in their daily lives, it is a
major achievement that they
have come to the seminar.
They decided to spend a few
days to visit Auschwitz and
Buchenwald, to spend time
with survivors, to work on
the project. This is already a
success, and everything that
is created during the project,
is a kind of added value.” At
the end he added: “Everyone
has personally proven that
they can add their little piece
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events do not occupy an appropriate place in the collective memory,” he added.
Paweł also spoke about the
fact that a journalist should
understand how individuals
as well as European politics
cope with the subject of the
Holocaust.
We also talked about the difficulties. For the young leader
of the video group, Adam Symonowicz, the problem was
the language barrier. “I had
some problems interacting
with some members of the
group, because English is not
my strong point,” he said. But
at the very end all spoke one
language, the language of creativity. You can check it out
and enjoy the great results of
work of the group that created the excellent films. Which
video was the most important
for the group? Adam replied
in the following manner:
“The text preparation and auto the puzzle for some greater dio groups are, of course, no
good—their experience, their less important than we are.
point of view, their personal What made us different was
perspective.”
the fact that we could actually
Indeed, each of the participants had a chance to realize
their ideas, but also to learn
about and share their insights
with the witnesses. Each person had a slightly different
motivation in doing this project. And what were the motivations of leaders: is it the
work, or rather the pleasure?
“On one hand this was a professional undertaking. I am a
journalist, and I teach media
and at the same time I was
able to run this kind of workshop. But the subject matter
of this meeting is also a very
important reason for my participation in this project,” said
the head of the audio group,
Paweł Kamiński. “I am interested in history in general,
but I am also interested in
the history of the Holocaust,
and I feel that this topic is not
discussed enough and these
show the audience the places
and people that had taken
part in the project.”
Without the groups working
on the text, audio, and video,
the project would not have
been complete; because this
is also about Web 2.0 as well
as social media. The group
dealing with the Internet, led
by Sebastian Schroeder-Esch,
had an extremely challenging
job. Its members had to collect the resulting work of the
three teams, and show this in
an attractive way to the wide
audience on the world wide
web. “This is an integral part
of the whole project,” said Sebastian. “The most interesting
part is that the entire platform
is free. How is that possible?
Well, the answer is simple—
the blogosphere! Blogging
allows all participants to
publish their work. Everyone
can watch, read, and listen to
them as well as make comments, of course. A true Web
2.0 project!,” he added.
This method also involves
challenges. “We want the
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
hen I sent the first application for the workshop held by the Association Maximilian Kolbe-Werk, I received
a reply that, though there was not a thought at all about Macedonia, they were happy that I was interested
and I might have the opportunity to go... and that is what happened. I was a participant in the project Memory
and Commemoration in the Era of Web 2.0. Why was I able to do so, although my country was not even taken into consideration when creating the seminar? I was active... I was truly passionate!
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blog’s content to be available
in different languages and we
are constantly working on the
most effective resolution. A
professional website is a very
expensive answer to this, we
are looking for good alternatives,” said Sebastian.
It must be remembered that
all the teams worked on the
various topics related to the
Holocaust, together with survivors, and in order to create
something that is lasting for
future generations. As Paweł
Sawicki has said, “Everyone
has personally proven that
they can add their little piece
to the puzzle.”
Most important is the fact that
we had the chance to talk and
listen to stories of survivors.
Thanks to that, we have witnessed their history. We remember and commemorate,
but the most important thing
is that in addition to this remembrance, we have chosen
to be active.
Mustafa Yakupov
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
THE WAR THROUGH THE EYES
OF A CHILD AND AN ADULT
W
e, the young participants in the project run by the Association Maximilian Kolbe-Werk, heard many stories told by witnesses of history. Sharing their stories were, among others, two survivors: Isaac Segalis
and Vasily Volodko. Mr. Segalis ended up in a ghetto as a child. Vasily Volodko was deported to a concentration camp as an adult. Two different fates, two different views of Nazi terror. How is a concentration camp
remembered through the eyes of a child and how is it remembered through the eyes of an adult?
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
childhood spent with their
family, without hunger and
fear.
The story of Vasily Volodko
was completely different.
He was arrested in 1943
when he was 19 years old.
His story was more concise,
constructive, based on historical facts and dates, but,
of course, his emotions were
also present there. His most
terrible experience was being held in a Gestapo prison.
The Germans treated him
very brutally, which had
affected his health. Paradoxically, it was thanks to
this that it was a bit easier
to survive the Dachau Concentration Camp, where
he was sent to the hospital
and avoided the exhausting
slave labor. Mr. Volodko
talked about the every day
function of the Gestapo
prison: “Every morning,
the Germans ordered us,
the weak and starved to do
jumping until we lost our
energy. They tied the bags of
bricks to the backs of some
prisoners and forced them to
exercise.”
The 86-year-old Vasily can
talk about his experiences
with a touch of bitter humor,
but somewhere behind it,
it not been returned, we
wouldn’t have been able to
get out of there, because no
one would have moved the
stove. I do not know how or
why, but he was allowed to
return home. Thanks to that
we managed to survive,” he
said.
As a small child in the world
of the concentration camp,
Mr. Segalis began thinking
about death very early on;
something that he actually
saw on a daily basis. “I realized that the worst thing
you could do to me was to
kill me. I did everything to
stay alive,” he said. The extraordinary story of a child
who survived Nazi brutality
symbolizes the fate of thousands of children who were
deprived of a normal, happy
Juliana Ryazantseva
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
The story of Isaac Segalis,
who was three years old
when he was taken to the
ghetto of Kaunas, was full of
personal emotions, fragmentary memories, and colorful
scenes which remained in
his memory. His first memory was the inhumane division of all prisoners into two
groups. Some were sent to a
brutal death in the gas chambers, however, others were
allowed to live, or rather exist, within the ghetto. “My
entire family ended up behind the walls: my mother,
father, sister, grandparents,
and I,” Mr. Segalis said. “A
long queue formed at the
gate. Before us, stood a person in a uniform, who loudly screamed ‘Left! Right!’ in
German. My mother, father,
sister, and I ended up on the
right side. My grandparents on the left side, in other
words, sent to die. I did not
understand that I would
not see them ever again.”
Another clear memory he
possessed was that of hiding under the floor, located
in the house where Isaac
and his mother were hiding from being deported to
a labor camp, where people
were chosen to be killed. “To
make the hide-out harder to
find, my father covered the
entrance with a heavy oven.
One day, as my sister, mother, and I remained in hiding,
the Germans ordered my father to leave the house. Had
there are deep, hidden emotions hidden.”
Hunger, the omnipresence of
death, survival in inhuman
conditions, and the constant
fear of death are terrible
things. Terrifying for those
of all ages. A child’s psyche
is not able to survive this unscathed. We know the stories
of the child survivors of the
camps who played at doing
“selections” and “pogroms,”
rather than normal games.
Only in adulthood did they
recognize the horror of those
events. Isaac Segalis was
lucky because he remained
with his family. Despite the
hopelessness of the situation,
he had his family with him.
When Vasily Volodko was
sent to the camp, he did not
have anyone with whom he
could share the darkest moments of his life. The fact
that he had such great courage and did not break down
in the terrible conditions
of the Gestapo prison and
later at Dachau is unusual.
Child and adult, Isaac Segalis and Vasily Volodko, despite their differences, share
a burden—the burden of a
tormented, but unbroken
human being.
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
THE WORLD VISITS AUSCHWITZ
DURING THE WORLD CAFÉ
L
ovely tables, lively discussions, and menus placed on the tablecloths: a pleasant, normal coffee shop. However, upon closer scrutiny this is something completely different; conversations in English, Polish, Russian,
and German resound throughout the room, the tablecloths are made of paper, and on the menus, instead of
the dishes offered, there are questions: What impact does the memory of the Second World War have on the creation and development of a national identity? Is it possible to create a common international culture of memory?
Instead of coffee there is a serious discussion.
the past allows us to build
the present and the future.
We can create a national
identity, when we recall the
past events” is the common
conclusion.
That evening an interesting
question was asked, as to
the way topics such as: the
Second World War, National Socialist ideology and the
Holocaust are taught during
history lessons in schools.
There were various answers
to this question. For example, in Israel, all three themes
are interconnected and it is
important to possess good
knowledge of these issues.
Everyone must learn about
this, and after a few weeks
they must take an exam. The
Government supports the
commemoration of the Holocaust, even if it is through
organizing a day of remembrance. In Polish education
there is more information on
the effects of, rather than the
causes of the Second World
War. Not enough is said
about the Nazi era, although
there are special educational
programs for teachers, while
students visit the Memorial
Sites. The subject is breached
not only during history lessons, but also during art and
literature classes. In Communist times there was a serious problem, because history was taught differently
at home from that in schools.
That has now changed.
In Russia, the most important day is Victory Day on
May 9. The National Socialist ideology and the Holocaust are presented from
a political standpoint, and
even now, these are difficult
questions. The anniversary
is commemorated annually,
but it does not take place in
schools, but in various youth
organizations.
Young people from Germany were divided. For some,
the lessons are interesting.
You can watch many movies, listen to radio shows
and, of course, read a large
amount of books devoted to
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
ing of reflections someone
wrote: “To have an identity,
you have to have a history.
To make history, an identity
is needed.”
The Israeli guests said that
the memory of the Holocaust has had a profound
impact on the identity of
the Israelis. Many people
have known survivors and
every year a national day of
remembrance takes place,
which touches everyone.
The Russian participants
observed that the military
victory of the Second World
War was of greatest pride
in the former Soviet Union;
however, it is also important
to note that, in Russia and in
other post-Soviet countries,
historians are beginning to
address the subject of the
Holocaust, because not all
the facts are known yet.
In contemporary Poland, the
culture of memory is a popular phenomenon—much is
said about it, but there are
also many opportunities to
do something concrete, to
not forget. “Knowledge of
this period. But some want
to know more. You can meet
many Germans, who take
part in various volunteer
programs in Poland and visit the places connected with
the history of the Holocaust.
The discussion on how to
create and develop various
forms of memory and commemoration, which does
not serve political ends and
cannot be used for nationalistic purposes, presented
very many possibilities.
International dialogue and
interviews with surviving
witnesses should be documented and presented even
on the Internet. Also important are education, intergenerational
communication,
pluralism, and diversity.
And, as it turns out, everything can start from an international discussion, over a
cup of coffee.
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
During the international
meeting in Oświęcim, participants took part in workshops devoted to the culture
of memory within their own
countries. The World Café
brought together a variety
of perspectives and posed
many questions. Small,
mixed groups of people
from different countries and
of different ages sought the
answers.
The main problem discussed
during the meeting was how
the mass media and societies deal with the culture of
memory. “After the end of
World War II German identity had collapsed and, in
reality, the situation never
truly returned to normal.
Showing any trace of patriotism was accompanied
by a feeling of deep shame.
German flags and the German national anthem, appeared for the first time only
in 2006 when Germany held
the world football championship,” said one of the
German participants. On
the special card for the writ-
The coordinator of the project Memory and Commemoration in
the Era of Web 2.0 was the Association Maximilian Kolbe-Werk.
The progress of the participants’ efforts can be followed on the
website: Maximilian-Kolbe-werk.blogspot.com
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Anna Reinhardt
Katarzyna Gasińska
International Youth Meeting Center
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
OUR CONSUL
I
Dr. Thomas Gläser
Photo: IYMC
n March 2007, the Consul General of Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Thomas Gläser, had been awarded
a statuette of the Good Spirit at the annual meeting of the Good Spirits, Friends and Benefactors of the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim. The statuette was accompanied by a certificate, in which the jury justified
its choice, highlighting the remarkable ability of the Consul to combine the functions of a diplomat with sensitivity
to the challenges posed by modern times, and the particular understanding of the issues of historical Auschwitz
and the modern city of Oświęcim. In early March 2011, we received the sad news Dr. Thomas Gläser had died in
Barcelona. A terrible message, unbelievable, that is so difficult to come to terms with.
There are individuals that
you meet and it changes the
way you look at our world,
sometimes it also changes
relationships among people. Thomas Gläser was one
of these people. If the term
“Polish-German reconcilia-
tion” defines a certain process, the work of the former
Consul General of Germany
in Cracow was the process’
practical realization.
He was a remarkable person,
combining the seriousness
and authority of the office
he held with an exceptional
openness towards others and
a kindness that gained him
allies and friends. Few people in recent years have done
so much for bettering the
neighborly Polish-German
relations, especially for the
perception of Germans by
the Poles. And although we
know that while he was the
Consul in Cracow, he was
highly valued and respected;
his activity and consistently
fulfilled need to get to know
the people among whom he
lived and worked (his customary walks through the
area covered by the consulate in Cracow), for us, employees of the IYMC, was a
particularly important and
close. From the first meeting
in our Center, immediately
after following his visit to the
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State
Museum, it became clear to
us that the problems associ-
ated with this unique place’s
history in Poland and Germany would become a priority for the Consul.
It is impossible to calculate or
overestimate the initiatives
taken up by Thomas Gläser
for the city of Oświęcim as
well as the International
Youth Meeting Center. The
close cooperation with the
State Higher Vocational
School in Oświęcim (that
included a significant extension of its library collection),
taking part in the difficult
discussions to find financial
support from Germany for
the construction of the Memorial Hospice in the city of
Oświęcim, or his cooperation with the Rotary Club of
Oświęcim, which he was also
a member of, are just some
of the very important projects in which Thomas Gläser
took part. He also worked
in cooperation with the
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State
Museum, the International
Auschwitz Committee, the
Association of Roma in Poland, the Center for Dialogue
and Prayer, and the Jewish
Center in Oświęcim. Recognition of his work includes
his reception of the Medal of
the City of Oświęcim.
Thomas Gläser was closely
connected to the Meeting
Center from the beginning.
He participated in countless
events carried out by IYMC
(lectures, exhibitions, and
concerts); a deep relationship
that linked him with former
inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the eyewitnesses, and
the weight he attached to the
visits of young Germans to
this especially marked place,
allows us to call Thomas
Gläser the ambassador who
carried the message which
flows from the International
Meeting Center, the pedagogical concept that “Auschwitz is a place of learning.”
He sponsored the jubilee
exhibition The other side of
the world which, thanks to
his support, could be presented in Cracow as well as
in many German cities. He
was uniquely consequential
and sought to make others
aware and appreciate the
work the Center is doing in
the very complicated field of
pedagogy of remembrance.
He accompanied a countless
number of delegations that
after visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum,
also had the opportunity
to get acquainted with the
activities of the IYMC. He
supported the active role of
Volkswagen AG with respect in fostering a culture
of remembrance, frequently
meeting with the youth involved in study programs at
the Meeting Center.
He knew most of the IYMC
staff, valued our homecooked meals, and when
with us, he felt he was among
friends. The time spent with
Thomas was for the Center
and for those of us working
here an important and good
time. We believe that he felt
the same way. He was the
Consul General of Germany
in Cracow. He was also our
Consul.
At the end of May 2011, the
Judaica Foundation – Jewish
Cultural Center in Cracow
together with the International Youth Meeting Center
in Oświęcim plan to organize an evening and concert
in Cracow devoted to the
memory of Consul Thomas
Gläser.
Leszek Szuster
INSIDE THE (SEASHELL) HOUSE
“When a quarter of a century ago the creators of this place made it known as the International Youth Meeting Center,
it was a slight exaggeration. It’s a bit like the names of newly born babies. We do not know whether the few day old
treasure, who we name Victoria will be victorious in life. We do not know whether baby named Peter will truly be
real bedrock... Likewise, it was not certain whether the International would be truly international, and would become
recognizable in the world,” said Alicja Bartuś, the Chair of the IYMC Foundation Board, opening the yearly meeting of
Good Spirits—friends and donors of the Center…
Germany. It deserves this
merit also due to the many
quiet and valuable projects that have created the
Center’s unique character:
meetings with poetry, art,
philosophy, history... and
above all—with other individuals.
A place in the heart
The theme of this year’s
meeting of friends and donors of the IYMC was the
seashell. The Good Spirits met
at the Center full of maritime
scenery, surrounded by variously shaped and colorful
wonders of nature intricately
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formed out of calcium carbonate. Małgorzata Szpara,
as always, took good care of
the fabulous evening’s artistic backdrop.
Invited to spend a few moments in the quiet serenity of
the seashell were the faithful,
regular guest of events organized by the International
Youth
Meeting
Center,
those former Auschwitz
prisoners who have become friends of the Center:
Zofia Posmysz, August
Kowalczyk, Wilhelm Brasse,
Tadeusz Smreczyński, Józef
Paczyński, as well as representatives of the city, county,
and province institutions.
Photo: Jakub Senkowski
Today no one doubts that this
known to us all for 25 years
mature and unique “youngster” is recognizable not only
in Poland and Germany, but
also in Strasbourg and New
York, Eastern and Western
Europe, Israel, as well as
in... South Africa. And this
means that it fully deserves
to be called “International.”
This is not only the effect of
many high-profile meetings,
that have taken place in the
Center, such as the recently
organized debates with current and former chairmen
of the European Parliament
or the meeting that included
the presidents of Poland and
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Joanna Galistl, a Good Spirit in the “Donnor” category
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International Youth Meeting Center
The shell is also
a house…
Józef Paczyński (right) and Piotr Kudełka (left),
a Good Spirit in the “Artist” category
Gładyszek. The former prisoners who are presently here
say the same thing and, despite the years, they continue
to perform their mission—
that is how much they enjoy
returning here. Teenagers
who listen to the words of
eyewitnesses say this. As do
the great artists, as well as
their grateful audience. We
hope that, for you, the IYMC
has found a place in your
heart during the last quarter
century,” Dr. Alicja Bartuś
emphasized in her introductory speech.
Gaba Kulka
The seashell gives
birth to pearls
Shell is an attribute of the
deities of the sea. Pearls are
born out of it, which symbolize beauty. The Meeting
Center on March 20, a Sunday evening, released these
pearls and awarded them.
For the ninth time already,
with the help of artists from
the Teatr Gry i Ludzie [The
Games and People Theater],
extraordinary
individuals
were honored—the IYMC
Good Spirits. “Statuettes of the
Good Spirit are awarded to
people who are particularly
close to us, and those who,
in various ways support,
help, and inspire us,” said the
IYMC director and host of the
evening, Leszek Szuster.
This year, Piotr Kudełka
was awarded the Good Spirit
statuette (in the category:
“Artist”)—for
outstanding
artistic achievement, for his
mastery and virtuosity as
well as bringing the art of
the guitar to young people,
for true cooperation with the
International Youth Meeting
Center in carrying out the
most prestigious artistic ventures, especially the Cracow
Poetry Salon, for including
the Kudełka musical family—his sister Maria and his
brother Jan—in the artistic
presentation at the Meeting
Center, and for his humility
and sincerity. For the category of “Donor,” Joanna Galistl,
owner of the bakery “Ptyś”
in Chełmek, was awarded
for her subtle, long-term,
and regular support for the
Cracow Poetry Salon; for her
poetic artistry in the art of
confectionery, with a deep
understanding of the ideals of
the Center. In the category of
“Reliable Rescuer,” the statue
of the Good Spirit was given
to Marcin Boiński for his
sensitivity, kindness, and big
heart, but also for the fact that
nothing is impossible for him,
and for always having time
for the IYMC, when he does
not have any time!
To finish the evening, inside the musical shell of the
IYMC, was a performance
by the pearl of Poland’s music scene—Gaba Kulka—a
talented vocalist and pianist,
with an exceedingly rich imagination and fantastic voice.
It was an amazing concert
with the blend of progressive pop, which combines
within itself various genres,
from jazz to piano rock, and
the Weill cabaret created a
beautiful setting for another,
amazing Meeting with a capital “M.”
Monika Bartosz
Photo: Jakub Senkowski
Photo: Jakub Senkowski
At the IYMC many people
from around the world found
a home. “Our sorely missed
friend Jadwiga Toczek, who,
with her husband Janusz,
conjured up for us a series of
Poetry Salons in this room,
said this. So did our great
friend Thomas Gläser, former
German Consul in Cracow.
Jan Knycz, who from the outset had been associated with
the IYMC, said the same.
Former prisoners, no longer
with us also said this—
Zofia Łyś and Władysław
Photo: Jakub Senkowski
For each visitor that crossed
the threshold of the IYMC the
hosts presented a seashell as a
gift—a wonderful gift of the
seas and oceans, which could
be used by its new owner as
a beautiful natural mirror,
a household decoration, or
even a musical instrument.
Many people believe that the
shell is a charm that protects
against fire, shows the way,
guards against bad luck, and
that it also ensures fertility
and prosperity.
Photo: Jakub Senkowski
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
Good Spirits guest at the IYMC
Marcin Boiński, Good Spirit
in the “Reliable Rescuer” category
NOTES FROM ANOTHER WORLD
A MEETING WITH LESZEK ALLERHAND
A
It includes, not only extensive historical material,
but also the biographical
history of the Allerhand
family—including Leszek
Allerhand’s famous grandfather, Maurice, professor
of law at the Jan Kazimierz
University in Lviv. In 2003,
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his book Zapiski z tamtego
świata [Notes from Another
World] was published, including discovered notes
that were written by Maurice Allerhand during the
occupation on the back of
a court document, interspersed with memories of
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his grandson.
Leszek
Allerhand
was
born in Lviv in 1932, to a
wealthy, intellectual Jewish
family. His father Joachim
and his grandfather Maurice ran the law firm there.
In the autumn of 1942, after
the seizure of Lviv by the
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Photo: IYMC
s part of the series Literature and Memory, on April 1 at the IYMC
a meeting was held with Dr. Leszek Allerhand, who spent the
last several years carefully examining the history of Jews in
Lviv. The fruit of his labor is his newest publication from 2010—an
album, entitled Żydzi Lwowa. Opowieść [The Jews of Lviv. A Story].
Leszek Allerhand and Leszek Szuster
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International Youth Meeting Center
Photo: IYMC
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
Leszek Allerhand
Germans, the family was
forced to live in the ghetto,
from which they managed
to escape and survive the
War, hiding in the city. After liberation, the family
was repatriated to Cracow.
Allerhand graduated from
the Medical Academy in
Cracow, he received a grant
from the Ministry of Health
and studied at the Training College of Physicians. In
1963, he settled in Zakopane
where he worked as a doctor
at a local hospital (a doctor
of medicine training), and
also assumed a number of
other functions; including
chief physician of the Polish
Olympic winter sports team.
In 2009, he was also one of
the founders of the Allerhand Institute.
“In autumn 1992, I attended
the World Congress of the
Association of Children of
the Holocaust in Jerusalem.
One day, I was visited by
Shmuel Krakowski, a representative of Yad Vashem. He
asked me many questions
about our family, trying to
determine whether I am a
member of Maurice Allerhand’s family,” Leszek Allerhand recalled, presenting the
beginnings of his interest in
the history of his family and
the wider Jewish community
in Lviv. “I learned that Yad
Vashem has in its possession
a copy of my grandfather’s
memoir from the time during
the occupation, which was
published in book form after
being translated into English
and Hebrew. I received a
copy of the book, and after
returning to Poland I went
to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, where the
originals of the diaries were
made available to me.
This discovery determined
Leszek Allerhand to relive
the events in parallel with
the events described in his
grandfather’s diary but seen
and heard and—as he says—
with his very clear child’s
eyes and ears. “I then wrote,
not realizing that I created
my own diary. I assumed
that my memoirs had to be
only a modest addition to
descriptions of my grandfather. Finally, I defied the
intended proportions, but
I hope that my grandfather
will forgive me,” he said. The
same picture was painted
by the story, summed up by
the film, entitled Pasja życia
[A Passion for Life] from
2004, filmed in Lviv. It was
shown during the second
part of the meeting.
Leszek Allerhand recalls the
times of the so-called first
Soviets, who took over Lviv
at the beginning of the War.
The history, while mainly
dealing with dramatic experiences, was interspersed
with amusing comments and
anecdotes, as well as a historical sketch of the history
of the Lviv Jewish community. Among the guests of the
meeting, which was hosted
by Leszek Szuster, were representatives of the Sambor
Club in Oświęcim.
The Foundation for International Youth Meeting Center
and the Judaica Foundation
– Center for Jewish Culture
in Cracow, organized the
event.
jk
Participants of the seminar during
their visit to the Memorial Site
From March 8 to 15, twentyfive participants took part in
a seminar organized jointly
by the IYMC in Oświęcim,
the Middle School in
Heepen/Bielefeld, and the
FILOMATA Private Secondary School in Gliwice.
The seminar’s participants
worked together and attempted to decipher the history of Auschwitz through
the use of literary texts that
were created by survivors.
Preparing for the seminar,
the students developed presentations about selected authors: Liana Millu, Krystyna
Żywulska, Stanisław Hantz,
Bogdan Bartnikowski, and
Tadeusz Borowski, whose
testimony helped the participants create a literary
narrative during a visit to
the Birkenau Memorial Site.
An equally important aim of
the seminar was to bring to-
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tions arose about the joint
responsibility of other European nations for the extermination of the Jews and the
phenomena that were associated with this.
Both groups were convinced
that the most important task
ahead is to preserve the
memory of the victims as
well as their suffering and
the authenticity of this place
that has the power to create fundamental values of
dignity and the equality of
every human being.
In joint discussions dealing
with memory within families and how it is passed on
from generation to generation, the participants often
discovered very complicated and difficult histories.
A grandfather of one of the
participants from Germany
was a member of the SS,
something that she only became aware of a few years
ago following his death.
While tidying the attic she
came across Nazi propaganda medals, something that
her grandfather was proud
of. The family remained silent about the subject. The
second grandfather was expelled from the territories
annexed for Poland after
1945, under the Potsdam
Agreement. He lost everything he possessed, his family as well as property. A
great-grandfather of another
participant was a prisoner in
Participants of the seminar during their visit to the Memorial Site
the camps of Auschwitz and
Neuengamme. He brought
with him the only memento
left after his great-grandfather—a letter from the
Auschwitz camp. His grandmother had given it to her
grandson so that he would
donate it to the Museum Archives and look for any traces of his great-grandfather’s
imprisonment in the camp.
By discovering the fate of
the Poles, Germans, and
Jews, the complex picture of
the War and the Holocaust
was revealed to the young
people and taught them mutual respect and tolerance.
This dialogue was not about
fixing blame for the crimes
that had been committed,
but to preserve the memory
of the victims as well as the
events that had taken place
more than 60 years ago.
The most important experience for the young Poles
and Germans during this
seminar in Oświęcim, as was
emphasized in the summary
session, was the joint literary tour around the Birkenau Memorial. Tangible,
moving, often true-to-life
descriptions of places, people and events that had been
chosen by the young people
were read out at the authentic sites where the events
had taken place, this left a
deep impact on their psyche.
The second part of the project will be held in the autumn in Bielefeld, Germany.
The participants will jointly
develop a full documentation of the project in the form
of an exhibition, which they
will present to their peers at
school.
Elżbieta Pasternak
Photo: IYMC
Photo: IYMC
gether young Poles and Germans, in the context of their
biographies, families, and
the countries of their origin.
In analyzing the texts, the
young people searched for
specific themes that were
common in some of the
works, such as: love, solidarity, protest, struggle to preserve humanity in the sense
of physical and mental suffering, death, injustice, survival strategies, and labor.
This allowed a more empathetic perception of a visit
to the Auschwitz Memorial
Site, whose purpose was to
deepen knowledge about
the topography and function of the Concentration
Camp. The first joint discussion was about the observations and reflections on the
various ways of the tour of
Auschwitz seemed to be accepted among young Poles
and Germans. The German
participants were troubled
by the question of guilt for
crimes perpetrated by the
Nazi Germans in the historical, legal, and moral
contexts; as well as whether
now, in the 21st century,
there are sufficiently strong
legal mechanisms for the
protection of human rights
that guarantee the prevention of genocide. In the
Polish group, undoubtedly
influenced by the current
debate that surrounds J.T.
Gross’ publication, ques-
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Photo: IYMC
A
summary of the Polish-German seminar for young people
from Gliwice and Bielefeld, The fate of the Poles and Jews persecuted during the Second World War and the Holocaust in the
context of Polish and German post-war literature—searching for traces.
Photo: IYMC
SEARCHING FOR TRACES
Participants of the seminar at work
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Jewish Center
ter
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
MATISYAHU IN OŚWIĘCIM
O
ne of the most original and intriguing artists of the world reggae scene will perform on June 18 in
Oświęcim, at the closing concert of the second edition of Oświęcim Life Festival—Festival for Peace.
This will be his second visit to Poland. Last year in July he appeared at the Open’er festival in Gdynia,
and also performed an intimate acoustic concert at Temple Synagogue in Cracow during the Jewish Culture
Festival.
Photo: OLF
He moves well within the
reggae style, adding to it
elements of Hasidic music,
jazz, hip-hop, and beatbox, creating a highly original blend of music. He is
known from his very energetic, attention-grabbing
shows. As he says, “performances on stage are an
important part of what I
do. It is where energy is
produced, something that
cannot be achieved in the
recording studio.” Over the
past few years, Matisyahu
has worked with many famous producers and artists including Bill Laswell,
Sly&Robbie, Muslim beatboxer Kenny Muhammad,
and P.O.D. Moreover, he
was also nominated for the
prestigious Grammy music
award.
He is also known to engage
in a number of projects promoting human rights, so
his message perfectly fits
the idea of Life Festival. In
2007, Matisyahu became involved in the formation of
the American documentary
Unsettled, whose protagonists were six refugees from
Gaza. The musician wrote
Matisyahu
the soundtrack, and the
movie won the Jury Prize
for documentary filmmaking and was also screened
during the Slamdance Film
Festival. A year later, together with, among others,
Steven Segal and Jennifer
Photo: OLF
Matisyahu, but actually
Matthew Paul Miller, was
born in 1979 to a Jewish
family in the United States.
A trip to Israel in 1995 was
a turning point in his life. It
was then that he became fascinated with Orthodox Judaism, and he became a Hasid.
He has been actively involved in music since 2000,
after four years Matisyahu
signed with JDub Records,
promoting Jewish musicians free of charge. In midOctober, that same year, he
released his debut album
Shake Off the Dust... Arise. A
year later the artist’s live album hit the stores, entitled
Live at Stubb. In 2005-2006,
Matisyahu toured extensively in the United States,
Canada, and Europe. He
has also performed in Israel, opening for Sting. At the
beginning of March 2006,
his second studio album
Youth was released, which
confirmed that Matisyahu
is one of the leading artists
of the contemporary reggae scene. The latest, a live
album by the artist, Live at
Stubb’s Vol 2, was released
in February this year.
Artur Szyndler
Matisyahu
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Aniston he joined the campaign drawing attention to
human rights abuses in Burma by recording a special
video for the song It Can’t
be Wait. In 2010, the artist
put his support behind the
NU Campaign, which produced a special t-shirt with
his image, and the income
from the sale went to support the work of the Israel
Center for the Treatment
of Psychotrauma to aid the
victims of the people affected by the earthquake
in Haiti. Also last year, including with American actor Matt Damon, Matisyahu
backed the Onexone Canadian Foundation, which
aims to improve the living conditions of children
worldwide.
In Oświęcim, the artist will
perform together with the
Brooklyn based Dub Trio,
composed of: D.P. Holmes
(guitar), Stu Brooks (bass),
and percussionist Joe Tomino (drums). At this year’s
final concert, in addition
to Matisyahu, we will also
hear James Blunt, T. Love,
and RotFront. More on
this year’s edition of Life
Festival can be found at:
www.lifefestival.pl
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
OSHPITZIN
A GUIDE TO
THE JEWISH HISTORY
OF OŚWIĘCIM
B
efore the War, where did the Chief Rabbi
of Oświęcim live? Down which streets
did the Jewish inhabitants of Oświęcim
walk? Who did President Mościcki visit in
Oświęcim? You can find the answer to these
and many other questions thanks to the latest project of the Jewish Center in Oświęcim,
entitled Oshpitzin.
It is a virtual map of the preWar Jewish Oświęcim, which
is combined with historical
photographs as well as filmed
testimonies of witnesses who
remember the currently nonexistent Polish-Jewish world.
The website for the project
Oshpitzin is available at www.
oshpitzin.pl, and is supplemented with a book that has
been published, entitled Oshpitzin. A Guide to the Jewish
History of Oświęcim.
We sincerely invite you to
the official inauguration of
the project Oshpitzin, which
will take place on Thursday,
April 28, 2011 at 5:30 p.m. at
the Oświęcim Jewish Center
at 5, Fr. Skarbek Square. The
project will be presented by
its creators: Tomasz Kuncewicz, Dr. Artur Szyndler,
and Maciek Zabierowski.
Admission is free.
JC
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Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
GOD, SHED A TEAR...
I
Photo: WSD Cracow
t should be noted that, in spite of the abyss of evil and despair that
emanates from Auschwitz, it would be fitting to simply remain quiet and not even to make the most subtle attempt at expressing the
feelings which accompanied us while passing the row of remaining
barracks of the former Nazi German Concentration and Death Camp.
grimage was doing the Way
of the Cross at the world’s
largest necropolis in Birkenau. It lasted three hours in
the shadows of people who
lost their lives here.
About 140 hectares, nearly
300 barracks, 16 km of barbed
wire fences, gas chambers
and crematoria. From this
place one does not return the
same, part of human being
does not come back at all—
the memory returns to the
hectares of extermination, to
the barracks, in which there is
a terrifying emptiness left be-
of certain values—they are
in fact competent specialists
from the realm of the body,
soul, and the spirit). Despite
this “hell on earth” many
prisoners were able to find an
unblemished area of freedom
in themselves. So intense was
this extreme situation, which
Maximilian Kolbe and many
others experienced that it led
them to true holiness. Praying
in the places of their execution, such as praying at the
Wall of Death, was an opportunity to ask God that their
blood, which still cries from
the earth (cf. Gen 4, 10), will
be the cause of the conversion of people who come here
and who will be able to learn
about the crimes committed
at Auschwitz. Similarly, an
important element of our pil-
hind by those who had previously been there. One would
like to whisper: God, shed a
tear! But it was God himself,
as Jesus Christ, who gave the
meaning of death—even that
which is most dreadful. He
had gone through it himself.
Death becomes the gate necessary to pass on to a new
life. He also inflicted death
onto any death, even the most
absurd, though perhaps we
do not yet understand this.
When Jesus died on the cross,
his disciples also did not understand this.
Photo: WSD Cracow
regain your faith. Someone
might think that the former
concentration camp is not
the most appropriate place
for doing such a thing. However, Auschwitz had become
a place of the mass murder
of many individuals who enjoyed great authority in the
interwar period—including
doctors, teachers, and clergy.
The Nazis were afraid of such
people because they could
be a source of resistance (it
seems that even today an attack against these groups of
individuals is the questioning
when evil gains momentum,
it is hard to make it stop. The
horror becomes overwhelming when reading about the
cold and calculating estimates
the creators of the camp had
about the efficiency of the
death camp and the manner
in which technology can improve the technical process of
killing. Looking for reasons
for this depravity, one must
look back upon aversions to
a small group, or even to a
particular person. “Everyone
who hates his brother is a
murderer” (1 Jn 3, 15a).
The visit we paid to Auschwitz was treated by us as a
pilgrimage; a pilgrimage to a
place where you can gain, or
Photo: WSD Cracow
standing of God, who in fact
is not indifferent to any human beings. It is worth asking yourself how it became
possible to treat entire nations
in such a twisted manner. In
Auschwitz, the nations on
which the Nazis inflicted the
greatest cruelty were the Jews
and Poles. How could such a
tragedy come to be, in which
these and many other nations
suffered so much?
We can imagine three people, twenty people, or perhaps even a hundred; we
cannot imagine a thousand.
And what can we say about
hundreds of thousands or
millions—these numbers become statistics. It seems that
Photo: WSD Cracow
History has probably never
seen a more brutal mistreatment of humans, for whom
other people literally become
the hell. What can someone,
who is preparing for priesthood, say about this tragedy?
A member of the clergy is seen
as a person who has a unique
connection with God—the
God, who is accused of calmly watching the hell on earth
known as Auschwitz.
I hope that it does not sound
like an empty statement: that
that God suffered in each of
the people, who were deprived of practically everything by the inhuman totalitarianism. In this statement,
there is a profound under-
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Tomasz Koszarek
Photographs show seminarians from Wyższe Seminarium
Duchowne in Cracow during
their visit to the Memorial
Site.
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
History
PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL
ZOFIA GAWRON
(born 1926; married name: Prejzner)
Born May 22, 1926, in the coal
miners’ settlement in Brzeszcze
known as the “Old Settlement,”
she was the fifth and youngest
child of Antoni and Tekla née
Hoder. She attended public
school in Brzeszcze. When the
war broke out, she was thirteen
years old and had finished six
grades in school.
Near her home, at the beginning
of 1941, Zofia began encountering the first Auschwitz prisoner
labor details marching to work
in the Brzeszcze coal mine. Upset by the sight of these miserable-looking men in striped uniforms, she established contact
and then began going daily to
the place where they worked
with food for them. At first,
she helped the prisoners in the
labor gang that shoveled slag,
the Schlackenkommando. Next,
she began helping other labor
details, the surveyors and the
wicker detail, as well. At first,
she did this on her own. Later,
she cooperated with other women—most frequently with one of
the organizers of the relief effort
in Brzeszcze, Maria Górecka.
Zofia went to Górecka’s house
to help her divide up into portions the food they acquired,
and to make coffee. Since she
found it impossible to acquire
as much food as she needed for
the prisoners, she approached
acquaintances, prosperous local
residents, and shop owners, and
won them over to the cause. She
also took letters from the prisoners and forwarded them to their
families.
In the spring of 1942, she was
arrested on suspicion of contacting the prisoners. She was
released after undergoing several weeks of investigation, during which she refused to confess
to the charged. She resumed her
efforts to aid the prisoners. In
February 1943, after someone
informed on her, she was arrested again. This time, the Ger-
mans took her to the Auschwitz
I-Main Camp and imprisoned
her in Block no. 11, the “Death
Block.” Despite multiple interrogations at the hands of the
Gestapo, she again refused to
confess to contacting and aiding the prisoners. In May 1943,
the summary court sentenced
her to Auschwitz, where she
was registered as prisoner
number 44097. She was placed
in Block no. 15 in the women’s
camp in Birkenau sector BIa. A
few days later, she came down
with typhus and was admitted
to the camp hospital. Now, the
same prisoners she had helped
when she was on the outside
came to her aid. They told the
older women prisoners to look
after her, and sometimes visited
her when they came into the
women’s camp on various job
assignments.
Once the crisis passed and she
recovered her strength, she was
assigned to labor inside the
camp. In the fall of 1944, on a
request from prisoner Antonina
Piątkowska, who belonged to
the resistance movement, Zofia
Gawron applied for assignment
to an outside labor detail. With
the foreman in charge of her labor detail, Franciszek Zabuga,
serving as conduit, Zofia passed
on to her family in Brzeszcze
certain documents that had
been illegally carried out of the
camp, including evidence of the
crimes committed there: blueprints of the crematoria, lists of
Polish women who had died
or been murdered in the camp,
and photographs of Jewish and
Roma women and children on
whom Dr. Mengele conducted
his experiments. Zofia’s father
buried this material in his yard.
After Zofia completed this mission, women fellow-prisoners
helped her to obtain an assignment to the camp warehouses.
She stole, and smuggled out
of the camp, warm clothing intended for escapees who were
fighting with local partisan
units.
In November 1944, Zofia was
unexpectedly summoned to
the camp Political Department (Gestapo) and accused of
maintaining contact with the
partisans. Despite being brutally beaten during her interrogation, she refused to admit
anything. She never returned
to Birkenau, but instead was
imprisoned once again in Block
no. 11 in Auschwitz I. On January 12, 1945, she was transferred
VESTIGES OF HISTORY
of official as well as desirable
art within the Third Reich.
Paintings and sculptures of
this type were not placed in
offices, but rather in canteens,
meeting rooms, and in the SS
men’s private homes. All of
these objects, nevertheless,
show how far Nazi ideology
encroached into all spheres of
people’s lives, through the use
of various means and forms of
expression.
Photo: Mirosław Ganobis
style—Himmler’s quotes for
Fritzsch, and later for Höss.”
In addition to the handwritten
copies and prints, the collection also contains a well-preserved lithographic stone with
the text of T. Eicke, from which
additional copies were made.
In addition to these inscriptions, on the walls of the SS offices there were photos of Adolf Hitler as well as signs with
mottos, such as Recht—Unrecht—Mein Vaterland. Within
the Museum’s collections
there are preserved examples
Carriage sign
A friend of mine called me
and said that he had something new for my collection.
When we met, he brought a
small, soiled, and worn sign
that had some kind of writAgnieszka Sieradzka ing on it. At first glance this
Collections Department was nothing interesting, but
A-BSM it ended up somewhere within my museum collection
and for some time I forgot
about it. I do not like it when
something whose mystery
is not solved is on the shelf
too long. I cleaned the sign—
before the War, ones like it
were on horse-drawn carriages. The sign had information about the owner, from
Dwory, written in Polish and
German, which testifies to
the fact that the carriage was
used during the German occupation. Often, Germans
used the owners of vehicles
to perform various jobs. In
the pictures from the war
horse-drawn carts appear
even during the deportation
of Poles and Jews. Often,
The framed SS oath of faith
such carriages were used in
Photo: Collections Depatment, A-BSM
The words of Theodor Eicke,
cofounder of the German concentration camp system, hung
on the walls of offices and
quarters of the SS garrison in
Auschwitz. Propaganda under Hitler focused mainly on
a few constantly repeated
points that catered to the emotions of its recipients. Every
word spoken or printed in
the Third Reich was to have
an impact on society, to shape
the right attitude, or at least
praise the alleged greatness,
importance, and strength of
the regime. The framed SS
oath of faith is a perfect example of this kind of indoctrination. The text is accompanied,
in this case, by the typical SS
ornamentation: runes and the
death’s head, which also appeared on the covers of photo
albums, tie-pins, and even signets.
Within the Museum’s collection there are several examples of these types of inscriptions. Quotes from speeches
by German officials were
hand-written or printed, using
a lithographic technique by
prisoners on the specific order
of SS men. One former prisoner, Alojzy Gołka, testified
after the war, “I created various inscriptions in the Gothic
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Jadwiga Dąbrowska
FROM GANOBIS’S CABINET
FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM
“Our faith! We hate the stink of incense; it destroys the German soul.
We believe in God, but not in his middlemen, priests and worshipers,
as it would be pagan. We believe in greatness of our beloved German
Fatherland, for which we fight and conquer, or die. If we must therefore die, then we do not ask Mary for assistance, we will depart as
freely as we have lived. Our last breath shall be: Adolf Hitler.” Theodor Eicke, Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross-with Oak Leaves, WaffenSS General.
to Ravensbrück Concentration
Camp as part of the general
evacuation of Auschwitz. She
was sent from there to Sweden
for medical treatment as part of
the Swedish Red Cross relief effort.
She returned to Poland in November 1945. Jan Prejzner, who
had escaped from Auschwitz
in September 1944 and joined a
partisan unit, found her shortly
afterwards. They soon married
and moved to Cracow. Her
husband finished his schooling,
which had been interrupted by
the war, and passed his final examinations. Next, they moved
to Warsaw, where her husband
began studying to become a
journalist. After graduation, he
took a job with the Polish Press
Agency (PAP). Zofia stayed at
home to look after their son and
daughter. When the children
were older, she took a full-time
job, and worked until she retired on a disability pension in
the late 1970s. She lives in Warsaw.
For her wartime services, she
was decorated with the Knight’s
Cross of the Order of Poland
Reborn and the Oświęcim
Cross.
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transporting building materials for such projects as the expansion of Auschwitz as well
as the building of the IG Farben chemical plant. And of
course, Dwory was right next
to the plant that was being
constructed. Residents of the
area remembered the name
of the man. As it turned out,
he has been dead for quite
some time, however, all the
while his family lives in that
same house he had inhabited.
Quite by chance, it turned out
that the person listed on the
sign was the great-grandfather of my friend. His family
knew only a little bit of information about him. Urban
Kwaczała was born on May
18, 1879 and died on June 10,
1942—the cause of death remains a mystery. Did he die
a natural death? Or did he die
at the hands of the occupier?
I hope that one day I can find
out more about this story.
Mirosław Ganobis
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 28, April 2011
Photographer
PHOTO JOURNAL
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hotographs of Buchenwald Memorial Site taken
during the project Memory and Remembrance in the
Era of Web 2.0. Photographer: Paweł Sawicki.
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