On Auschwitz by Auschwitz Memorial

06.23.2024

"On Auschwitz" (47): Functionary prisoners at Auschwitz

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 committees, keeping order in the blocks or barracks, but also distributing...

05.26.2024

On Auschwitz (46): Tattooing numbers at Auschwitz

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...

04.26.2024

"On Auschwitz" (45): The story of Witold Pilecki, co-founder of resistance in Auschwitz

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...

03.28.2024

"The Zone of Interest" - discussion with the filmmakers

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...

02.23.2024

"On Auschwitz" (44): Women at Auschwitz

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...

01.27.2024

"On Auschwitz" (43): the film Chronicle of liberation of Auschwitz

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...

01.20.2024

"On Auschwitz" (42): Death Marches from Auschwitz towards Wodzisław Śląski and Gliwice

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,...

12.27.2023

"On Auschwitz" (41): Art at Auschwitz

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...

12.01.2023

"On Auschwitz" (40): Why prisoners of Auschwitz did not start a revolt?

One of the important questions about Auschwitz is why the prisoners, who outnumbered the SS guards, did not make an attempt of a general revolt or uprising. Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz and Dr. Wanda Witek-Malicka of the Museum Research Center discuss...

11.13.2023

"On Auschwitz" (39): Keeping the functioning of Auschwitz in secrecy

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...

10.22.2023

"On Auschwitz" (38): Women supervisors at Auschwitz

Over two hundred women served the SS in KL Auschwitz. They were divided into three groups according to the duties they performed: the biggest group constituted the so-called Aufseherinnen, whose main task was to watch over women prisoners; the second group...

09.29.2023

"On Auschwitz" (37): Different cases of organized resistance at Auschwitz

In the history of Auschwitz, there were instances when prisoners tried to resist. The most famous event is the Sonderkommando revolt that took place at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on 7 October 1944. This story is told in episode 21 of our...

09.01.2023

"On Auschwitz" (36): The story of Sophie Stippel, the cook of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss

One of the prisoners in the first transport of women to Auschwitz - 999 women transferred from Ravensbrück concentration camp in March 1942 - was Sophie Stippel. She was registered as prisoner number 619. She was arrested because she belonged to...

08.11.2023

"On Auschwitz" (35): Plunder of the property of Auschwitz victims

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 -...

07.27.2023

"On Auschwitz" (34): The first moments at the Auschwitz camp

You have arrived not at a sanatorium but at a German concentration camp in which the only way out is through the chimney. If someone doesn’t like this, he may at once go to the wires. If there are any...

07.02.2023

"On Auschwitz" (33): Creation of the Auschwitz Memorial

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...

06.30.2023

"On Auschwitz" (32): Documents analysis: how Auschwitz camp attempted to transfer 30 women prisoners from Ravensbrück

The analysis of the surviving documents of the camp administration makes it possible, on the one hand, to trace how the centralised concentration camp system administered by the SS in Nazi Germany functioned, while, on the other hand, it also...

05.05.2023

"On Auschwitz" (31): Christian clergy at Auschwitz

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...

03.20.2023

"On Auschwitz" (30): Why the Auschwitz camp was not bombed?

The Auschwitz II-Birkenau gas chambers and crematoria never became targets for Allied bombing, despite reports about their existence forwarded both by the Polish resistance movement and some people who escaped from the camp. Instead, American bombers carried out several strikes...

02.24.2023

"On Auschwitz" (29): British prisoners of war near the Auschwitz camp

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...

01.27.2023

"On Auschwitz" (28): Liberation of the Auschwitz camp

On 27 January 1945, Red Army soldiers liberated over 7,000 prisoners of the Auschwitz. The 1,689-day history of this concentration and extermination camp came to an end. Dr Jacek Lachendro of the Museum Research Centre tells us what the last...

01.16.2023

"On Auschwitz" (27): Liquidation of 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...

12.27.2022

"On Auschwitz" (26): Deportations of Poles from the Zamość region to Auschwitz

After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941. Heinrich Himmler gave the order to create a "German settlement area" around the occupied Polish town of Zamość. The population of that region was to be expelled and replaced by German...

12.05.2022

The interview with Dr. Maria Zalewska, editor of the cookbook "Honey Cake & Latkes: Recipes from the Old World by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivors"

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’...

10.27.2022

"On Auschwitz" (25): Orchestras at Auschwitz

The camp orchestra played for the first time at the German camp Auschwitz at the beginning of January 1941. Initially there were seven musicians there, but the ensemble grew very quickly. The main task was to play military marches to...

09.15.2022

"On Auschwitz" (24): New Research on the History of Auschwitz

It might seem that we already know everything about the history of places such as Auschwitz, because several decades have passed since the events and we have access to a great many documents and thousands of testimonies. However, this is...

08.13.2022

"On Auschwitz" (23): the sacrifice and death of father Maximilian Kolbe

At the end of July 1941 the camp commander Karl Fritzch selected 10 hostages from among the prisoners in Block 14 in retaliation for the escape of a prisoner. He condemned them to death by starvation in the bunker of...

07.12.2022

"On Auschwitz" (22): The Archives of the Auschwitz Memorial

The Archives of the Auschwitz Memorial collect, preserve, and provide access to documents and materials connected mainly with the history of the Auschwitz camp. The collection includes original German camp records, copies of documents obtained from other institutions in Poland and...

06.17.2022

"On Auschwitz" (21): The Revolt of Sonderkommando Prisoners

On October 7, 1944 a revolt took place at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, in the Sonderkommando - the special work unit that consisted mainly of Jewish prisoners whom the Germans forced to work in gas chambers, burning pits areas and...

05.20.2022

The interview with Dr. Piotr Cywiński about his book "Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human".

“Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human” is a new book by the Auschwitz Museum Director Dr. Piotr Cywiński. It is the first attempt - on a global scale - to delve so deeply into human emotions inside the camp. It...

05.17.2022

"On Auschwitz" (20): SS garrison in the Auschwitz camp

During the time of operation of Auschwitz, some 8,100-8,200 SS men worked there as part of the camp garrison. In our podcast Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of Research Center of the Auschwitz Memorial, talks about functioning of the SS...

04.06.2022

"On Auschwitz" (19): registration photographs of Auschwitz prisoners

In the thousands of preserved registration photographs of Auschwitz prisoners, we can see faces of the men and women imprisoned in the camp. Dr Wojciech Płosa, the head of Auschwitz Memorial Archives, talks about the history of these photographs.

03.04.2022

"On Auschwitz" (18): sub-camps

The Auschwitz concentration camp had almost 50 sub‑camps. The largest of them had extensive administrative structures, separate hospital barracks, showers and even small crematoria. In the smaller ones, prisoners were locked up for the night in rooms or cellars—there were...

02.15.2022

"On Auschwitz" (17): prisoners with purple triangles - Jehovah’s Witnesses in Auschwitz

Activities by the Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned in the Third Reich in 1933 because of the Witnesses’ religious principles and pacifistic views, as well as their organization’s international connections. As a result, many of them were imprisoned in concentration camps. Teresa...

01.26.2022

"On Auschwitz" (16): The research on the number of victims of the camp

The historians of the Memorial today estimate, that the Germans murdered around 1,1 million out of 1,3 million people deported to Auschwitz. Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Museum Research Centre, talks about the history of research on the number...

01.13.2022

"On Auschwitz" (15): The camp through eyes of a child

The fate children who were registered in Auschwitz as prisoners was no different in principle from that of adults. Just like them, they suffered from hunger and cold, were used as laborers, and were punished, put to death, and used...

12.27.2021

"On Auschwitz" (14): Starvation and slave labour of Auschwitz prisoners

Two extremely important factors in the exhaustion, deprivation and destruction of prisoners at Auschwitz were hunger and hard slave labour. Dr. Jacek Lachendro of the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre talks in our podcast about this aspect of the camp's functioning. --- Listen also...

12.20.2021

"On Auschwitz" (13): The fate of Sonderkommando prisoners

One of the darkest chapters of the history of Auschwitz is undoubtedly the story of the Sonderkommando - a group of prisoners, mainly Jews - forced by the Germans to work in gas chambers and crematoria of the camp. Prisoners assigned...

11.30.2021

"On Auschwitz" (12): Polish and Jewish prisoners in the camp

During its entire existence, slightly over 400 thousand people were registered at Auschwitz as prisoners - including 131 thousand women. The two largest groups of prisoners were Jews - about 200 thousand - and Poles, some 140 thousand. Since Germans established...

10.30.2021

"On Auschwitz" (11): Sport and sportspeople in Auschwitz

The term "sport" in KL Auschwitz was distorted by using it to refer to the exhausting exercises combined with the drill and singing applied on a mass scale. This form of sport, referred to after the war as pseudo-sport, was...

10.06.2021

"On Auschwitz" (10): Living and sanitary conditions as well as camp clothing at Auschwitz

The horrible living conditions created by the SS authorities in the block and barracks in all parts of the Auschwitz complex as well as the appalling sanitary conditions contributed to the exhaustion and death of many prisoners. The clothing which...

09.22.2021

"On Auschwitz" (9): Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp

The Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp was established in October 1942 on the site of the displaced and expelled Polish village of Monowice, located 6 km from the Auschwitz I camp. It was connected with the construction of the synthetic rubber and...

09.04.2021

"On Auschwitz" (8): Children at Auschwitz

Using only estimates based on the examination of the existing incomplete documentation, it can only be acknowledged that there were around 232,000 children aged under 15 and youth aged under 18 among the at least 1.3 million people deported to...

08.09.2021

"On Auschwitz" (7): the fate of Roma and Sinti in Auschwitz

At least 23,000 Roma and Sinti people - including 11 thousand children were deported by the Nazi German regime to Auschwitz. After the Jews and Poles they are the third largest groups of the victims of the camp. The vast majority...

07.22.2021

"On Auschwitz" (6): the first crematorium and the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz

From the beginning of the existence of the German Auschwitz camp, the bodies of murdered prisoners were incinerated. The first crematorium on the grounds of the camp was opened in August 1940 and, of course, prisoners of the camp had...

07.08.2021

"On Auschwitz" (5): Criminal pseudo-medical experiments in Auschwitz

A particularly drastic example of betrayal of medical ethics is the participation of many German doctors in the criminal pseudo-medical experiments carried out on concentration camp prisoners. Paweł Sawicki spoke to Teresa Wontor-Cichy from the Memorial Research Centre about the...

06.24.2021

"On Auschwitz" (4): Transformation of Auschwitz concentration camp into an extermination center

In planning the construction of Auschwitz, the Germans assumed that the camp would eventually hold some 30,000 prisoners. As late as the beginning of 1941, there were no indications that, over the next few months, both the plans for employment...

05.23.2021

"On Auschwitz" (3): What to read? Literature based on the history of the camp.

Recent years have seen an increased interest among writers in the subject of Auschwitz. Their books are set in the realities of the camp - with very mixed results. Agnieszka Juskowiak-Sawicka talks to Wanda Witek-Malicka from the Research Center of...

05.20.2021

"On Auschwitz" (2): Medicine in Auschwitz

The Auschwitz camp complex had an extensive organizational structure, which also included a separate department responsible for protecting the health of both the SS garrison and - at least in theory - the prisoners of the camp. Paweł Sawicki talks...

05.19.2021

"On Auschwitz" (1): The beginnings of Auschwitz

The German Nazi Auschwitz camp was established by the SS in the occupied city of Oświęcim, on the Polish territory annexed by the Third Reich at the beginning of World War II. Paweł Sawicki talks to Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, head...