On Auschwitz

We discussed the group of functionary prisoners at Auschwitz in one of our previous podcasts. You can find it at: podcast.auschwitz.org. In this episode Dr. Wojciech Płosa, the head of the Auschwitz Museum Archives will talk about the post war fates of some of the functionary prisoners. ===== Artwork: Mieczysław Kościelniak, Praca przy walcu (Working on the roller), Auschwitz Memorial Collectons....

The Germans established the Auschwitz concentration camp in the spring of 1940 for man  prisoners. The first women were deported to the camp in March 1942. In total, more than 130,000 women  prisoners were registered there during the camp’s existence. The history of the first transports of women is discussed by Dr. Teresa Wontor-Cichy from the Research Center of the Auschwitz Museum. ====== Online...

Before the war, Oświęcim was a town inhabited mainly by Poles and Jews. During the Second World War it was annexed to Germany and the name of the town was changedto Auschwitz. At the end of 1939 the town had a population of over 12,500 people, about half of whom were Jews. Near Oświęcim there were several villages, which in December of 1939 were incorporated into the German administrative unitof S...

Among the many groups of people deported to the German camp Auschwitz, Slovakian Jews occupied a special place. They were brought to the camp at a time when it was undergoing fundamental, organizational and functional transformation. From a place of concentration and gradual destruction of prisoners through dramatic living conditions and hard labor to a center of mass extermination in gas chambers...

How the demographic structure of the area around the camp changed and what contacts existed between the SS camp garrison members and the local civilian population is discussed by dr. Agnieszka Kita, deputy head of the Auschwitz Museum archives. ===== Article published in the post-conference publication, "Face of War", Vol. 6, "City and the War" . ===== Voiceover: Therese McLaug...

On 17 January 1945, the SS began evacuating the Auschwitz camp. Around 56,000 men and women, prisoners under the escort of armed SS men, marched out from various parts ofthe camp complex in the direction of Wodzisław Śląski and Gliwice. Several thousand people were killed during these so-called Death Marches. In this episode of the “On Auschwitz” podcast, we quote fragments of eyewitness accounts...

The Waffen-SS and Police Hygiene Institute at Auschwitz was established in the autumn of 1942. Its tasks included conducting hygienic and bacteriological tests for SS units, the German army, the police, and concentration camps, including the entire Auschwitz camp complex. Teresa Wontor-Cichy from the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre talks about the activities of the institute, which used camp pris...

What did ideological training for SS personnel at the Auschwitz camp look like, and how did the ideology of national socialism influence the functioning of this SS formation? These questions are addressed in the podcast by Dr. Agnieszka Kita, Deputy Head of the Auschwitz Museum Archives. ==== Voiceovers: Therese McLaughlin and Kate Weinrieb

Some 8,200 SS men and 200 women overseers served in the camp garrison of the German Nazi camp Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945. How were the perpetrators from Auschwitz, including the first commandant, Rudolf Höss, and other garrison members, held accountable? Dr. Wojciech Płosa, head of the Archives of the Memorial, explains. ===== Voiceovers: Greg Littlefield, Mike Skagerlind

Block 11 at Auschwitz I was isolated from the rest of the camp. It served as a prison, an execution site, and the quarters of the penal company. Dr. Adam Cyra from the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre talks about the unique history of the so-called Block of Death. ===== Voiceovers: Toon Dressen and Grey Stanford.

At Auschwitz a system of punishments was in place for prisoners who broke camp regulations. In addition to official penalties, SS garrison members and functionary prisoners also imposed so-called unofficial punishments. Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, head of the Research Center at the Auschwitz Museum, explains the types of punishments and the offenses for which men and women prisoners could be punished. =...

The International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, established as a result of the efforts of Auschwitz Survivors, has been operating at the Memorial since 2005. The Museum director Dr. Piotr Cywiński and Education Center director Andrzej Kacorzyk discuss what education at the Memorial looks like today and what challenges it faces in the context of modern times. ===== Voiceov...

Education at the Auschwitz Memorial has been carried out since the Museum was established in 1947, and the first guides were Survivors who told visitors about the tragic history of the camp from their personal perspective. It was due to the efforts of the Survivors that the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust was established in 2005. Krystyna Oleksy, the first dire...

Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code criminalized homosexual contacts between men. One possible punishment was imprisonment in a concentration camp. Also at Auschwitz, there was a small group of men convicted of homosexuality. Dr. Agnieszka Kita, deputy head of the Auschwitz Museum Archives, talks about the persecution of homosexual men in Nazi Germany and the postwar memory of their fate. Engli...

On June 14, 1940, the Germans deported a group of 728 Poles from a prison in Tarnow to Auschwitz. Among them were soldiers of the September campaign, members ofunderground independence organizations, high school and university students, as well as a small group of Polish Jews. They were registered with nos. from 31 to 758. The podcast "On Auschwitz" presents fragments of testimonies of:- Kazimierz...

Block 10 at the Auschwitz I camp was the so-called experimental block. SS doctors conducted medical experiments there, including those focused on sterilization. Why was this particular block chosen for such experiments, who were the doctors working there, and what happened to their victims? These questions are explored by Teresa Wontor-Cichy from the Research Center of the Museum. Voiceover: There...

The Auschwitz camp did not have a homogeneous character and was constantly changing during its operation. Dr Jacek Lachendro of the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre talks about what everyday life was like for Auschwitz prisoners, from the morning roll-call, through the hunger that accompanied them all the time, to working beyond their strength.  Voiceover:  Ian Manger, Tom Vamos If you find value...

The Auschwitz Memorial covers nearly 200 hectares of land and includes about 300 ruins and 155 buildings, but also a huge number of historical objects, primary traces of Victims of Auschwitz: shoes, suitcases, brushes, or kitchen utensils. Nel Jastrzębiowska and Andrzej Jastrzębiowski from the Conservation Laboratories of the Auschwitz Museum explain how these priceless items are preserved and tal...

Holocaust denial is nothing more than a conspiracy theory built on lies and hatred. Although it resembles flat-Earth claims in its approach to facts, it is, in reality, a dangerous and vile vehicle for antisemitism and hatred. Deniers ignore or manipulate facts solely to attack the memory of the Victims. Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz and Dr. Igor Bartosik delve into the strategies employed by Holocaust den...

Some 7,500 prisoners of the German Nazi camp Auschwitz, including over 500 children, were liberated on January 27, 1945 by Red Army soldiers. Listen about the last days of the camp's operation and the moment of liberation. The podcast includes testimonies of: Anna Tytoniak Kazimierz Smoleń Lea Shinar Irena Konieczna Józef Tabaczyński Wanda Błachowska-Tarasiewicz Louis Posner Jakub Wolman Zofia...

Soviet prisoners of war are the fourth largest group of victims of the German Auschwitz camp, after Jews, Poles and Roma. A total of 11,964 prisoners of war were registered at the camp. In addition, according to estimates, at least 3,000 Red Army soldiers were deported to the camp and murdered without being entered into the camp records. Dr. Jacek Lachendro of the Museum's Research Center talks ab...

Upon admission to the camp, prisoners underwent a registration process, during which various documents related to the individual were filled out. Dr. Wojciech Płosa, head of the Auschwitz Museum Archives, talks about the details of this process. We wish to thank Toon Dressen for recording the English voiceover.

Josef Mengele was a doctor of medicine and philosophy, an assistant to Prof. Otmar von Verschuer in the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt, member of the Nazi Party and the SS. In Auschwitz, he was the chief physician in the Roma and Sinti Family Camp in Birkenau, and from August to December 1944, he was also the chief physician of the entire Birkenau camp. Mengele wa...

Prisoners of Auschwitz were able to send various types of illegal messages—both within the camp and outside the barbed wire fences. Some were short letters addressed to family members; others were messages and reports for underground resistance organizations. Dr. Wojciech Płosa, the head of the Auschwitz Museum Archives, discusses this unique collection of documents.

Nazi Germany deported some 1,3 million people to Auschwitz. Only a little above 400 thousand were registered in the camp as prisoners. Some could conduct correspondence with the outside world, however it had a unique character. Dr. Wojciech Płosa, the head of the Archives of the Museum talks about official prisoners’ correspondence: letters and postcards sent out from the camp and sent to the camp...