On Auschwitz

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...

Bogdan Bartnikowski was born in Warsaw in 1932. During the Warsaw Uprising, he and his mother were expelled from their home. The Germans initially sent them to a transit camp in Pruszków, and then deported them to Auschwitz where they were separated. On January 11, 1945, both were evacuated to Berlin-Blankenburg, where they were imprisoned until their liberation on April 22, 1945. After this, they...

In August and September 1944 -  after the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising -  almost 13,000 inhabitants of the occupied capital city and surrounding towns: men, women, the elderly, children, even infants, were deported to Auschwitz by the German authorities. Dr. Wanda Witek-Malicka of the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre talks about their fate in the camp. --- We wish to thank Kate Weinrieb for her...

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 Ausc...

In the German concentration camps, including Auschwitz, there was a group of so-called ‘functionary’ prisoners, responsible for supervising other prisoners.  They were mainly in charge of supervising the work units, keeping order in the blocks or barracks, but also distributing food among the prisoners. Being a lageraeltester, a block leader, or a kapo meant almost unlimited power over the prisone...

Auschwitz was the only German concentration camp where tattooing of numbers was applied to prisoners. Dr. Wanda Witek-Malicka of the Auschwitz Museum Research Center talks about why and when such a system was introduced, and whether all prisoners of Auschwitz were tattooed. We wish to thank Kate Weinrieb for her help in the production of the English version of the podcast.

Polish soldier, Witold Pilecki was imprisoned in Auschwitz on 22 September 1940. Pilecki undertook the mission to infiltrate the camp in order to create a conspiracy network there, organize communications, send reliable data about German crimes in the camp, and possibly prepare the camp's prisoners for a possible fight.  In April 1943, Witold Pilecki escaped with two fellow inmates. He wrote r...

On 15 February 2024, the Polish premiere of the film 'The Zone of Interest,' directed and written by Jonathan Glazer, was held at the Auschwitz Museum. The film, depicting the family life of Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Höss, was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival last year. It also received two Oscars. Director Jonathan Glazer, production designer Chris Oddy, and produ...

The Auschwitz camp was established in June 1940 for male prisoners. The first groups of women were incarcerated by the Germans more than a year and a half later - at the end of March 1942. Dr. Wanda Witek-Malicka and Teresa Wontor-Cichy of the Museum Research Centre talk about the reasons for the creation of the women's camp in Auschwitz and the circumstances surrounding it. We wish to thank J...

The Auschwitz camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, by soldiers of the Red Army. Well-known are the scenes captured by Soviet cameramen, which, although not showing the exact moment of liberation, are important documents revealing the crimes committed by the Germans in Auschwitz. It is essential to remember that some of the film material was created for propaganda purposes. Edyta Chowaniec from...

On January 17, 1945, SS men began the evacuation of the Auschwitz camp. Approximately 56,000 prisoners – men and women marched, under armed escort, from different parts of the Auschwitz camp complex, towards Wodzisław Śląski and Gliwice. Thousands of people, during the so-called Death Marches, lost their lives. Dr. Jacek Lachendro and Teresa Wontor-Cichy from the Research Center of the Auschwitz M...

The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum is in possession of the largest collection of art related to the Auschwitz camp. This collection is unique on a world scale. The artworks created in conditions of extreme danger are an extraordinary document of history and time that still stir the emotions to this day. They enable one to discover the feelings and emotions, difficult to reconstruct today, that acco...