On Auschwitz

The first publications about Auschwitz were published during the war, while the camp was still in operation. The immediate postwar years also abounded in numerous publications by witnesses-Survivors of those events. Dr. Wanda Witek-Malicka of the Auschwitz Museum Research Center discusses the advantages of literature written by direct witnesses over literary fiction inspired by the subject of Auschwitz. --- Books Published before 1950: ZAREMBINA Natalia, Auschwitz. The Camp of Death (ENG). SZMAGLEWSKA SEWERYNA, Smoke over Birkenau 1947, (ENG). ŻYWULSKA Krystyna, I survived Auschwitz (ENG). BOROWSKI Tadeusz, SIEDLECKI Janusz Nel, OLSZEWSKI Krystyn, We were in Auschwitz, (ENG). FRANKL Victor, Ein Psycholog Erlebt das Konzentrationslager, 1946 (GER). NYISZLI Miklos, Dr. Mengele boncoló orvosa voltam az auschwitzi krematóriumban, 1947, (HUN). NYISZLI Miklos, Auschwitz: A doctor’s Eyewitness Account, 1947; I was Doctor Mengele’s Assistant. MILLU Liana, Il fumo di Birkenau (IT), 1947. Published after 1950: BOROWSKI Tadeusz, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (ENG) ZIĘBA Adam, A Piece of Bread (ENG). GAWALEWICZ Adolf, Reflections in the Gas Chamber’s Waiting Room: From the Memoirs of a Muselmann. SOBOLEWICZ Tadeusz, But I survived. BARTNIKOWSKI Bogdan, Childhood Behind Barbed Wire. DUNICZ-NIWIŃSKA Helena, One of the girls in the band (ENG). DUNICZ-NIWIŃSKA Helena, Les chemins de ma vie (FRA). DUNICZ-NIWIŃSKA Helena, Los caminos de mi vida (ESP). DUNICZ-NIWIŃSKA Helena, Wege meines Lebens (GER) LEVI Primo, If This Is a Man. LEVI Primo, The Truce. WIESEL Elie, Night. FRANKL Victor, Men’s Search for Meaning. LAKS Szymon, Music of Another World. AMERY Jean, At the Mond’s Limits. LIBLAU Charles, I kapo di Auschwitz (IT). LIBLAU Charles, Les kapo d’Auschwitz (FRA). MELMERSTEIN Mel, By Bread Alone: The Story of 4685. KERTESZ Imre, Fateless. BUERGENTHAL Thomas, A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy. CLING Maurice, Vous qui entrez ici (FRA). LENGYEL Olga, Five Chimneys. KORNREICH-GELISSEN Rena, Rena’s Promise. ROSENBERG Otto, A Gypsy in Auschiwtz. DELBO Charlotte, None of Us Will Return. HANAK Vladimir, Mrtwy se vratil (CZECH) Sonderkommando: VENEZIA Szlomo, Inside the Gas Chambers. MULLER Filip, Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers. Children: BIRENBAUM Halina, Hope is the Last to Die. ZYSKIND Sara, The Stolen Years (ENG). KLUGER Ruth, Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (ENG). MULLER-MADEJ Stella, A girl From Chindlers List (ENG). Escapes: ALBIN Kazimierz, Warrant of Arrest (ENG). BIELECKI Jerzy, Wer ein Leben rettet… (GER). KOWALCZYK August, A Barbed Wire Refrain. About SS men: Auschwitz Seen by the SS. The Private Lives of the Auschwitz SS, red. Piotr SETKIEWICZ.

Although the SS took various measures to keep the functioning of the camp secret, especially when Auschwitz became both a concentration camp and extermination center, news about the camp got out. Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Museum Research Centre, talks about how information about Auschwitz could reach the world.

One of the elements of the operation of the Auschwitz camp was looting of the property of people deported to the camp. This was most intensified when Nazi Germany began the extermination of Jews at Auschwitz. Most of the property - after being sorted and disinfected - was sent to the Third Reich, where it was handed over to various groups of the German population, organizations and institutions. Dr. Jacek Lachendro, deputy head of the Museum's Research Center, talks about the looting process at Auschwitz.

After the liberation of Auschwitz, its two main parts - the former main camp (Auschwitz I) and Auschwitz II-Birkenau - were first placed under the control of the Soviet military authorities. In the first of these, from February to September 1945, Soviet field hospitals and the Polish Red Cross hospital operated, where most of the surviving prisoners were treated. A transit camp for German prisoners of war also operated there from spring to autumn of that year. A similar camp existed at the former Birkenau camp until early 1946. Commissions investigating the crimes committed by Nazi Germany at Auschwitz also began to work at the site of the former camp. At the same time, survivors began to make efforts to establish an institution at the site of the former camp to commemorate the victims. Dr Jacek Lachendro, from the Museum Research Centre, talks about the process that led to the creation of the Auschwitz Memorial in 1947.

The Germans incarcerated at least 464 priests, seminarians & monks as well as 35 nuns in #Auschwitz. Teresa Wontor Cichy, from the Museum’s Research Center talks about the fate of Christian clergy and about religious life in the camp. See also our online course: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_18_duchowienstwo/

One of the groups of witnesses to the crimes perpetrated at the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz were British prisoners of war who were forced to work on the construction of the IG Farbenindustrie factory. The building site was located in the immediate vicinity of the Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp and a few kilometers from the Auschwitz I main camp. British prisoners of war were also employed at the mines in Libiąż and Jaworzno, where Auschwitz sub-camps were later established. Dr Piotr Setkiewicz, head of the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre, talks about the history of British POWs near the Auschwitz camp. 

In the second half of 1944, due to the Red Army successes and the advancing Eastern Front, the SS authorities in Auschwitz decided to evacuate some 65,000 prisoners to camps in the German Reich interior. At the same time, they began to destroy the evidence of the crimes committed in the camp. Dr. Jacek Lachendro from the Research Center of the Museum talks about the last period of the operation of Auschwitz. See also our online lesson about evacuation, liquidation and liberation of Auschwitz: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_11_wyzwolenie/ In the picture: Mieczysław Kościelniak, burning of documents

Listen to the interview with Dr. Maria Zalewska who is the editor of a unique cookbook "Honey Cake & Latkes: Recipes from the Old World by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivors". "More than a cookbook, this collection of heirloom recipes conveys Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors’ stories through the mnemonic lens of cooking and food. Collected and edited during the pandemic, this book—in the words of Ronald S. Lauder, Chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation—“is a story of hope and triumph of the human spirit.” Over 110 recipes accompanied by survivors’ pre-war recollections and post-liberation memories weave a unique tapestry of sensory experiences of flavors and aromas from the old world, accounts of loss and trauma, as well as heartwarming and poignant tales of new beginnings and healing. All of the recipes have been tested and retested to make sure they can be replicated in your kitchen while keeping the original character and voice of the survivors who contributed to the volume." The book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Honey-Cake-Latkes-Auschwitz-Birkenau-Survivors/dp/1595911235 All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation.