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No. 23 November 2010 Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture Magazine, No o ś w i ę c i M ISSN 1899-4407 PEOPLE CULTURE HISTORY no. 23 November 2010 oś—oświęcim, People, history, culture magazine, no. 23, november 2010 EDITORIAL BOARD: oś—oświęcim, People, history, culture magazine EDITORIAL November is the month during which In the November Oś, you will also tions of a participant of the program we commemorate two sad anniversa- fi nd information about online courses Why do we need tolerance? ries. November 22, 1940 the fi rst ex- prepared by the International Center We also draw your attention to a pho- ecution by fi ring squad was held in for Education about Auschwitz and to report from the Way of the Cross at Auschwitz. A year later, November the Holocaust, an article devoted to the site of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau 11—Polish Independence Day—the the visit of students and professors former concentration camp. editor: Germans held executions at the Death from Voronezh at the Center for Dia- Paweł Sawicki Wall in the courtyard of Block 11 us- logue and Prayer, and a report from Paweł Sawicki editorial secretary: ing a silenced small caliber weapon. the Polish-German seminar intended Editor-in-chief [email protected] Agnieszka Juskowiak-Sawicka We are able to recount these events for organizers of study visits to me- editorial board: now through the testimony of wit- morial sites . The pages dedicated to Bartosz Bartyzel Wiktor Boberek nesses as well as archival documents. the Jewish Center include the refl ec- Jarek Mensfelt Olga Onyszkiewicz Jadwiga Pinderska-Lech Artur Szyndler columnist: A GALLERY OF THE 20TH CENTURY Mirosław Ganobis design and layout: For the second time in this veloped in gloom seemed to up with a sudden wonder- er, it ‘emitted’ its program. It Agnieszka Matuła, Grafi kon publication, I am resubmit- emanate. The memory of the ing fear. Did anyone get lost was turned on somehow or Translations: ting a text that I have pub- fact that these buildings, con- in one of those huge halls, it was by some miracle that David R. Kennedy lished in print. This time it sisting of their vast and ex- on one of the fl oors, corri- it issued this overwhelming, Proofreading: is from the article written a pansive halls and corridors, dors, stairways—and is hor- mysterious requiem! Beata Kłos few years ago and published were used during the War as rifyingly begging for help? The calendar hanging on the cover: in “Gazeta Krakowska.” I do a part of a Nazi death camp That’s impossible! Certainly wall indicated that it was the Paweł Sawicki not do so because of a lack did not fade. That it was here no one is or can be here! This third day of November, the Photographer: of current topics—there are that the prisoners sent in the appalling croon cannot be in fi nal night of All Souls’ Day. Paweł Sawicki more than enough of them: fi rst transport to Auschwitz this place and time, and it has Someone may have wanted from yesterday, today, and were housed for a time. That no trace of human character! to let us know that they are those that will appear to- here they had to accept the So what is it? The explosion currently here. Perhaps some morrow! But some things suffering and humiliation, of the sudden noise did not energy or bio-accumulation PubliSher: from the past, some events that they died, were killed... last long, maybe a quarter of inside the building consisting and places where they have Our responsibilities: the shift a minute—and then all was of a tragic origin years ago, Auschwitz-Birkenau occurred, still seem to have foreman and me, his assist- still. After a brief shock and the atoms of pain and de- State Museum a subjective and emotional ant and a helper, included subconscious fear, we recov- spair that exploded, running, value. watching over the correct- ered the quality of our logical fi red the energy for the sud- www.auschwitz.org.pl “In the mid-60s, of the cen- ness of the technological thinking and ability to clearly den emotion that very night. tury leaving us, I happened process of fermentation and, assess facts. Maybe it was our own emo- to be employed for some if necessary, interfering in It was the internal speakers tions, even unconscious, that PArTnerS: time—more out of curiosity this process. The foreman, system of the internal inter- detonated ‘an explosion of than need—at the Tobacco after completing his manda- com installation hanging in time’ at that moment, the cry Jewish Industry Plant located in our tory duties took a little nap, the halls, it was the factory’s of the past?... The magic and Center city, commonly called Mo- knowing that I will stand by central broadcasting center mysticism, parapsychology www.ajcf.pl nopol. In huge fermentation all the time, alert and ready, that ‘transmitted’ this amaz- and surrealism, or perhaps chambers, on all fl oors of a while reading something or ing program in the middle of an acoustic, technological cu- large building, the fermenta- doing, at this point and time the night, a concert of a cry riosity? And the coincidence tion of fresh tobacco leaves not completely necessary, and wail—without human of the events with the time Center for Dialogue was taking place. In the great writing. And so we passed inspiration, without anyone’s in which they occurred—All and Prayer halls at night, in the dark and the night hours in a small participation. Broadcasting Souls Day—a thing entirely Foundation light buzz of electric mo- guard booth! system’s room was locked coincidental. www.centrum-dialogu.oswiecim.pl tors, one could wander end- But this night was different! and sealed, and of course, Often, after many years, we lessly—the pungent smell of Out of the silence that sur- at this time there could not talked about this with Fore- fresh tobacco, rusty dust of rounded us, there was a sud- have been anyone inside. An man Franciszek, still not crushed tobacco leaves, and den scream, sob, painful yelp inspection of this place the knowing anything and not International Youth the smell of tobacco on my that emanated from an unde- next day confi rmed the ex- understanding. Now he may Meeting Center clothes and hair. This was fi ned location. A hoarse wail- isting state of affairs: the de- know everything on the oth- quite a mysterious and slight- ing lament—neither a song vice transmitting equipment er side of all understanding www.mdsm.pl ly incredible sight, where nor a repeated piercing cry had the dust cover intact, as and knowledge…” every dark corner seemed to that echoed in the high vaults the broadcasting center had crawl with moving shadows, of the halls in the middle of not been working for a long Andrzej Winogrodzki in cooPerATion where an aura of mystery en- the night! We were caught time! But this night, howev- WITH: Kasztelania www.kasztelania.pl State Higher Vocational School in Oświęcim www.pwsz-oswiecim.pl editorial address: „Oś – Oświęcim, Ludzie, Historia, Kultura” Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau ul. Więźniów Oświęcimia 20 32-603 Oświęcim e-mail: [email protected] Photo: A-bSM The buildings of the former Tobacco Monopoly. Photograph taken during the war 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 oś—oświęcim, People, history, culture magazine, no. 23, november 2010 Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Digital MeMorial MonuMent: naMes of Deportees to auschwitz froM the lublin area he Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has posted on its website the names of Poles from Lublin deported by the Na- Tzis to the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp dur- ing World War II. The database is more than a valuable source of historical information; it is also a monument to the memory of people whose lives were tragically scarred by Auschwitz. “This time, we are giving all ing electronic access to data als, the daily prisoner count interested parties access to from the districts of Warsaw books, and the records of data on about seven thousand (twenty-six thousand names), the so-called camp hospitals. Auschwitz prisoners deported Cracow (eighteen thousand), from the Lublin District. The Radom (sixteen thousand), The Digital Repository now data is based on the Memorial and Lublin (eighteen thou- contains over 650 thousand Book about deportees from sand),” said Antończyk. discrete records. In many Lublin and other localities in cases they consist only of the the Lublin area, published last At present, there is access at prisoner number, without the year by the Museum,” said www.auschwitz.org.pl to a name or date of birth. This Krzysztof Antończyk, head database with information on makes identification a long, of the Auschwitz Museum about 180 thousand Ausch- painstaking process. In com- Digital Repository. “We have witz prisoners registered by ing years, there will be Internet thus completed a project to the Germans. The information access to an enriched range of memorialize Polish men and comes from more than seven- documents currently under- women sent to Auschwitz by ty archival groups of original going analysis by archivists the German Security Police German records including the and documentation specialists and Security Service from “death books,” the record book at the Auschwitz Memorial. the four occupation districts of the Zigeunerfamilienlager of the General Government. (the so-called “Gypsy family 2bart At present, we are offer- camp”), the lists of new arriv- excerpt froM A MeMoir by StaniSłAw To maszew Ski, PriSoner no. 72239, deScribing hiS ArrivAl in AuSchwiTz And hiS firST dAy in The cAMP: “They opened the doors of the train car.
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