no. 17 May 2010 - Auschwitz

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PEOPLE
PAMIõTAMY
ZOCHRIM
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NIE TYLKO
AUSCHWITZ
ROTMISTRZ
WITOLD PILECKI
(1901-1948)
25 LAT
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64. ROCZNICA WYZWOLENIA AUSCHWITZ
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DOBRE
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BUTY,
CHLEB...
ORAZ ZUPA
UNIJNA DOTACJA
NA KONSERWACJõ
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ENSEMBLE
VOIX
ETOUFFÉES
WYSTAWA
SZTUKI OBOZOWEJ
„NOWE ēYCIE”
– WYSTAWA
W CENTRUM ēYDOWSKIM
REKOLEKCJE
„U PROGU AUSCHWITZ”
PATRZYãAM NA USTA...
– DZIENNIK
Z WARSZAWSKIEGO GETTA
OTTO KÜSEL
– WIõZIEý NR 2
HORYZONT
– SPOJRZENIE NA
EUROPEJSKI WOLONTARIAT
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„HISTORIE W BIOGRAFII”
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WZORCE PAMIõCI
PRZED I PO 1989 R.
NOWA SIEDZIBA
CENTRUM EDUKACJI
HISTORYCZNY
WAGON
NA RAMPIE
W BIRKENAU
OCHRONIç AUTENTYZM
MIEJSCA PAMIõCI
SELEKCJA
W SZPITALU
OBOZOWYM
ROZMOWA Z TERESð ćWIEBOCKð
AMERYKAýSCY KADECI
W POLSCE
PO CO NAM
TOLERANCJA?
DZIEý PAMIõCI
O ZAGãADZIE ROMÓW
BUDDYSTA I SIKH
O POJEDNANIU
MALA I EDEK: TRAGICZNA OBOZOWA MIãOćç
MOST DO HISTORII
I MOST PRZYJAđNI
WYSTAWA OKIEM KONSULA
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TABAKIERKA, KTÓRA URATOWAãA ēYCIE
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DZIEý KULTURY ēYDOWSKIEJ
„Oć” W UZBEKISTANIE
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MIõDZYNARODOWY KONGRES DLA POKOJU
SENTYMENTALNA PODRÓē
M a g a z y n b e z päa t n y
nr 15
JERZY BUZEK I HANS-GERT PÖTTERING
W MDSM I MIEJSCU PAMIõCI AUSCHWITZ
KARDYNAã DZIWISZ O OFIERZE
ćW. MAKSYMILIANA
25 LAT TWÓRCZOćCI
PAWãA WARCHOãA
ROZMOWA Z ZASTõPCð
DYREKTORA MUZEUM
RAFAãEM PIÓRO
65. ROCZNICA
WYZWOLENIA
OBOZU
AUSCHWITZ
KULTURY PAMIõCI
BAJKI
Z AUSCHWITZ
STYCZEý 1945 R. W AUSCHWITZ
POLSKO-NIEMIECKI PROJEKT FOTOGRAFICZNY
ćWIõç SIõ IMIõ TWOJE
nr 20
grudzieþ 2009
nr 21
no. 17
styczeþ 2010
May 2010
nr 22
luty 2010
nr 23
marzec 2010
nr 24
kwiecieþ 2010
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Oś—Oświęcim, People,
History, Culture magazine
EDITORIAL
We are very pleased to host you,
ladies and gentlemen, for the 25th
time. This number reminds us that
we are starting our third year of
publishing our monthly. The main
subject of this edition of “Oś” is
the annual event summing up the
work of the International Youth
Meeting Center. Once again, the
Center is hosting its friends and
supporters, in other words, Good
Spirits. At the IYMC, there was also
the finale of the fifth edition of the
project “Auschwitz—my land. History and remembrance years later”
organized in cooperation with the
Editor:
Paweł Sawicki
Editorial secretary:
Agnieszka Juskowiak-Sawicka
Editorial board:
Bartosz Bartyzel
Wiktor Boberek
Jarek Mensfelt
Olga Onyszkiewicz
Jadwiga Pinderska-Lech
Artur Szyndler
Columnist:
Mirosław Ganobis
Design and layout:
Agnieszka Matuła, Grafikon
Translations:
David R. Kennedy
Proofreading:
Beata Kłos
Photographer:
Paweł Sawicki
International Center for Education
about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Here you will find a report
about this event. On the pages of
the Center for Dialogue and Prayer,
you can read an interview with the
bishop of the German diocese of
Passau Wilhelpm Schramm, who
came to Oświęcim with a group of
27 seminarians.
near the Auschwitz Memorial Site
on the river Soła, a performance of
the artistic installation by Agnes
Janich “Light in Darkeness” took
place. While at the Oświęcim music school there were two concerts:
a performance by Grzegorz Turnau
for Igorek Bartosz as well as for the
second time, the French chamber
orchestra Ensemble Voix Étouffées
played (an interview with its direcThis month we dedicate quite a tor, Amaury du Closel, will be pubbit of space to various cultural lished in Oś).
events. The Jewish Center hosted
Paweł Sawicki
editor Piotr Paziński, who spoke
Editor-in-chief
about his book “Pensjonat,” and
[email protected]
A GALLERY OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Easter is behind us, but in
reference to that recently
celebrated holiday I bring
to attention a certain official
document issued by the authorities of our city, which I
quote in extenso:
PUBLISHER:
Municipal Office of Oświęcim,
Military Office, 31 March
1947, to Citizen Winogrodzki
(lawyer), Jagiełły Street 23 in
Oświęcim.
On orders of the District Administrator in Biała-Krak.
in the matter of organizing a
“Blessing” for soldiers of the
Polish Army, the local Friends
of Soldiers Society in Oświęcim
—asks for the collection of in
kind and monetary donations.
Our Polish soldiers paid a dear
price for our Free Holiday and
for our Freedom and Inde-
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum
www.auschwitz.org.pl
PARTNERS:
Jewish
Center
www.ajcf.pl
Center for Dialogue
and Prayer
Foundation
pendce, so may every soldier
feel the love of the entire nation
during the Easter Holidays.
They are in great financial
straits and we turn to all Citizens with the sincere request
to come with help in reaching
this goal. Donations in kind
and money, we ask be given to
the Social Citizens Women’s
League in Oświęcim. Mayor: J.
Cinalski.
Oval stamp with the words:
Municipal Office of Oświęcim,
Bialski District.
A few years later, this type
of initiative, this kind of
document and these collections would be impossible.
All official mention of religious traditions, ideas, and
practices, such as, blessings, were not looked upon
kindly, but were banned.
The nation had “freed itself”
from religious practices and
“superstitions”! For example: Christmas trees put up
in towns at the time—here
on the former bunker on
the main square bearing the
name of Joseph V. Stalin—
was not for Christmas, but
for the New Year, a lesson
taken from our neighbors in
the East.
Over the first few post-war
years, certain aspects of social life were connected with
traditions of the inter-war
period, for example, concerning religion, of which
some ceremonies such as
processions, were held with
the participation of representatives of state authorities. But soon they came to
terms with these “superstitions,” and the monopoly of
ruling the spirit was taken
over by the state-party authorities, at least that is how
it stayed as an illusionary
belief. To religion and the
Church, you could only turn
to for help in moments of
social crisis and distress—
which happened so often! In
moments of social protest.
Here we can remind ourselves of a known saying,
this time having to do with
the atheist party: when in
fear, God is dear!
I do not know if my father
answered the official document with a positive response, but if it survived in
family archive…
Andrzej Winogrodzki
www.centrum-dialogu.oswiecim.pl
International Youth
Meeting Center
www.mdsm.pl
IN COOPERATION
WITH:
Kasztelania
www.kasztelania.pl
State Higher
Vocational School
ol
in Oświęcim
Editorial address:
„Oś – Oświęcim, Ludzie,
Historia, Kultura”
Państwowe Muzeum
Auschwitz-Birkenau
ul. Więźniów Oświęcimia 20
32-603 Oświęcim
e-mail: [email protected]
Photo: www.kasztelania.pl
www.pwsz-oswiecim.pl
iecim pl
Main market square. Photo from Mirosław Ganobis’s collection “A Gallery of the 20th Century”
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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
A
t the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim a conference to sum up the fifth edition of the educational project “Auschwitz—my land. History and remembrance years
later” was held, and during which the contest for middle and high
school students entitled “Liberation as the first step to freedom”
took place. One of the organizers of the project is the International
Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
Guiding theme of this edition was the liberation of
Auschwitz. There were
384 student participating
from 21 schools, representing Małopolska and Śląsk.
During the meeting at the
IYMC, Dr. Jacek Lachendro,
from the Auschwitz Museum Research Department,
gave a lecture about the liberation of Auschwitz. Later,
the contest results were announced and awards were
presented. The conference
was linked with an exhibit
of the submitted contest entries.
The fifth edition of the project started in September
2009, when the students
took part in study visits and
lectures at the Museum. The
students’ task was to create
a literary or photographic
project on the subject of
“Liberation as the first
step towards freedom. My
thoughts and feelings associated with this visit.”
Roksana Butryn from the
C.K. Norwid Publiczne
Gimnazjum in Chełmek
was the first place laure-
ate: “I met with my aunt,
who survived the Second
World War. She was eight
years old then and lived in
Chełmek. Her uncle was
in Auschwitz, where he
worked at the factory. He
was sent there for some minor offense. I wrote about
her history. For me, it was
shocking. Every word she
spoke was difficult for her.
Her story is told within
our family. This history is
always alive within us,”
Roksana said.
Dominika Radziun is one
of the laureate of the photographic contest: “It started
with with a visit to the Museum. I took pictures and
used photographs from the
family album. I composed
the photos using a computer program. Here is my
grandmother, grandfather,
and my uncle. They lived
in Vilnius Region before
and during the War. After
the war they were moved
to the vicinity of Chełmek.
I wanted to show how they
lived while, Auschwitz was
operating. On the picture of
my grandparents, there is a
Photo: agjus
THIS HISTORY ALWAYS
ALIVE WITHIN US
Conference recapitulating the project
key photographed near the
ponds full of human ashes
at Birkenau. It has a double
meaning: it opens the door
to a home, and it opens the
door to freedom,” she said.
quences in their own and
their loved ones’ lives as
well as developing sensitivity. “Thanks to contests like
this one, we can learn about
the history of the camp in
an unconventional way. If
this were knowledge from
a book, it would have been
a bit boring. Here we are
submerging ourselves into
what happened there. We
are experiencing something
deeper, not just a page from
a notebook,”say the par-
Among some of the most
important goals of the program, worth mentioning
is to teach students and
teachers about the history
of Auschwitz, to shape the
ability to evaluate historical events and their conse-
ticipants of the contest from
Chełmek.
In the five editions of the
project organized since 2004,
in cooperation with the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and
the Holocaust, the International Youth Meeting Center
in Oświęcim, and MCDN—
Teacher Training Centre in
Oświęcim, there have been
nearly 3,000 participants.
agjus
THE RESULTS OF THE LITERARY COMPETITION:
• 1st—Roksana Butryn, class III a, C. Norwid Publiczne Gimnazjum in Chełmek,
teacher: Bogusława Opala,
• 2nd—Paulina Cyganik, class III a, Zespół Szkół w Żarkach—Gimnazjum in Żarki,
teacher: Marcin Włodarczyk
• 3rd—Patrycja Nędza, class III a, Zespół Szkół w Żarkach—Gimnazjum in Żarki,
teacher: Marcin Włodarczyk
THE RESULTS OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION:
• 1st—Marta Budner, class II a, LO, ZS Towarzystwa Salezjańskiego in Oświęcim,
teacher: Łukasz Śleziak
• 2nd—Wiktoria Zaręba, class II, LGS, Powiatowy Zespół Nr 10 Szkół MechanicznoElektrycznych im. Mikołaja Kopernika in Kęty, teacher: Grażyna Ferenc
• 3rd—Anna Szen, class III, Gimnazjum Gminne nr 1 im. mjr. Piotra Szewczyka in
Rajsko, teacher: Zofia Kanclerz
REMEDY FOR
A BETTER LIFE
A
Representatives from all the Silesian District Prison
jails and prisons located in Service appeared after a sucŚląsk visited the Museum cessful project done in the
site and learned about the Spring of 2009 by the MuseMuseum’s collection as well um with the District Prison
as watched selected docu- Service in Krakow.
mentaries showing Ausch- “Until the end of this year, the
witz in films.
Museum will carry out two
The seminar was an occa- projects in parallel,” Antoni
sion for discussions on the Stańczyk from the Internasubject of cooperative edu- tional Center for Education
cational work and its pos- about Auschwitz and the
sibilities when done in cor- Holocaust said. “One will
rectional institutions. The be a continuation, the secproposal for cooperation ond part of the continuing
between the Museum and cooperation with the Prison
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Photo: Paweł Sawicki
group of several dozen Silesian district directors of the Prison
Service were at the Auschwitz Museum for a one-day seminar “Auschwitz—History—Civic education,” organized by
the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the
Holocaust and the Prison Service.
Service of Małopolska. The
second, with the Prison Service of Śląsk, which starts
with this very meeting with
Representatives of Prison Service
its directors.
during their visit at the Museum
As the result of this special
for workers and guards
educational and resocializa- correctional institutions.
tion project, chosen groups “It would be naive to believe in the Prison Service. “But
of prisoners have the oppor- that the visit by convicts to there is faith that they will
tunity to visit the Auschwitz the former Nazi German enrich their historical and
Museum and take part in an Concentration and Extermi- civic knowledge, making an
educational seminar. At the nation Camp of Auschwitz impact on their moral attisame time, historians and will be a remedy for a better tudes.”
educators from the Museum life,” wrote Jacek Matrejek
are going with presentations, in the last edition of Forum
Bartosz Bartyzel
exhibitions, and lectures to Penitencjarne, a monthly
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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
THIS SYMBOLIC WAGON
NEEDS TO BE HERE
O
Photo: Paweł Sawicki
n the ramp of the former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau on 15 April, a memorialwagon was symbolically unveiled. It is dedicated to the memory of over 400 thousand Jews from Hungary,
who from May to July 1944 were brought to Auschwitz. The wagon stands in the spot where SS doctors performed the selection, sending most of those deported to their deaths in the gas chambers.
Unveiling of the memorial - wagon on the ramp in Birkenau
The conservation of the historical wagon was possible
thanks to the financial support of Frank Lowy, whose
father, Hugo, died in the
camp. “We have a memorialwagon that symbolizes the
suffering and the deportation of Jews from Hungary,
among whom was my father,
brutally murdered upon arrival a few meters from the
place where we are. This is
a very moving moment, but
for me it is also the end of a
certain stage. I lost my father
when I was 13 years old and
today I am 80. In my opinion,
Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum does great work in main-
taining the remains as well
as maintaining the memory
of those horrible events. For
this, I am truly grateful,”
Frank Lowy stated.
The ceremony was attended
by about 100 people, including former chief Rabbi
of Israel, Yisrael Meir Lau,
director of Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem Avner Shalev, the
immediate family of Hugo
Lowy and directors of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State
Museum.
In Avner Shalev’s opinion,
putting an authentic wagon
on the ramp is an extraordinary and important event. “It
seems to be something natu-
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ral that this symbolic wagon
should be here. It shows each
visitor how important it is to
remember the people who
were murdered, not only
here, but also that this was a
plan that included all of Europe. This wagon is a symbol
of that process and everyone
will be able to understand that.
I would like to recognize the
Director of the Museum, Piotr
Cywiński, for initiating this
project,” Avner Shalev said.
Those gathered also observed
a minute of silence for the victims of the catastrophic plane
crash that killed 96 individuals, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński.
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The wagon that is at the for- and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
mer Auschwitz II-Birkenau In the years 1942-1944, it was
site is originally from Germa- where the trains of those deny. Under the supervision of ported stopped, that was unMuseum specialists, the Ger- til the railroad tracks were
man company Die Schmiede built up to the very gas chamthat deals with technological bers at Birkenau.
antiquities restored it. Before The transport from Hungary
the Second World War, in in which Hugo Lowy was dethe years 1919-1925, over 120 ported, arrived on the ramp
thousand such wagons were at Birkenau in May of 1944.
produced. Many of these During the selection he was
were used to deport people to selected as fit for labor. When
the camp, which is proven by he refused to leave behind a
documents and archival pho- package with religious items
tographs.
—tallits and tefillins—the
Two historical rail cars are SS men brutally beat him to
also found on the so-called death.
Altejudenrampe, the railway
Paweł Sawicki
ramp between Auschwitz I
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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
MUSIC FOR COMMEMORATION
T
he French chamber orchestra Ensemble Voix Étouffées for many years has been commemorating music of
composers persecuted by the Nazi Third Reich. On April 24 and 25 musicians gave two concerts in Poland
—in Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and in music school in Oświęcim which hosted the orchestra
for the second time.
This year the musicians performed works by Alexander
von Zemlinski, Aleksander
Tansman, Norbert Glanzbert and music of Johann
Strauss edited by Arnold
Schönberg. In Oświęcim,
young musicians, students
of the local music school
took part in the concert as
well as workshops with
French musicians.
The orchestra is headed by
Amaury du Closel. He was
interviewed by Paweł Sawicki.
Voix Étouffées is a project that deals with a
very unique part of the
history of music. How
did it all start?
It started about ten
years ago when I discovered numerous pieces
by composers who were
completely
unknown
to me. I learnt that they
either disappeared in
concentration
camps
or were compelled into
exile by Nazi Germany.
From this point on I
started to rediscover
scores, I searched the
archives and I wrote a
book. Finally, I formed
an ensemble of musicians that is specialized in interpreting the
works by these composers. It’s a collection of
styles and aesthetics. It’s
not an entity or a school,
like for instance the Schoenberg school which is
a part of this tragic history… The only common aspect of these
composers is that at
some point of their lives
they were persecuted
by the Nazis, mostly because they were Jewish.
The only common thing
they have is the fact that
they suffered.
Jewish Historical Institute. These are two very
symbolic places.
realatives,
composers
who perished during
the war. They ask if we
can do something for
their music. Then I have
a look at their works
and if it is good I can
say: “Yes, we will do
it.” We try to publish
and record. Last year
in Oświęcim we played
some pieces by Alfred
Tokayer. It was nice
and entertaining music. It was sent to us by
his daughter. Since his
death this music had
never been performed.
Nobody knew about
him. He was not a very
well known composer.
He arrived in France
in 1935 and he did not
even start his career. He
composed some music
for the movies but generally he remained quite
unknown. After he died
in Sobibór in 1943 everybody forgot about him.
We recorded his music
with Romanian Chamber Orchestra and then
started to perform it as
often as we could for
about a year.
you include all religious
works as well as popular music of Jewish origin, it might involve up
to 4 thousand people.
It was genocide so the
idea was to destroy everything. Not only people but also their works
were destroyed. You can
find so many absolutely
beautiful works which
deserve to be part of the
normal concert life. It’s
the job we have been
doing with so many difficulties for the last ten
years. I try to choose
the best works for the
ensemble. There were
operas, symphonies and
chamber music written.
We are just a chamber
ensemble up to 15 people and that means that
big things are not available for us as it is too expensive.
Have there been any
major discoveries during
your
research,
something that may be
really significant to the
history of music?
It happened to us once
or twice. From time to
time we get messages
from families who had
This symbolic point of
view is very important
for us, but it is also important because we discovered, after playing in
Oświęcim last year, that
we could use music as a
tool for teaching the history of the Holocaust.
It reoriented our work
in the past year. At first
I thought—yes, these
are wonderful composers and we need to play
their works but it was—
if I may say so—a selfish musician goal. We
realized afterwards that
we have a duty to the
community to help the
youth understand what
happened, that we could
play part a modest part
in remembrance of this
terrible events so that
they would not be repeated.
What are the plans for
the future?
We have been supported by the European
Union for the last two
years and we can work
more and more in Eu-
You are in Oświęcim
for the second time and
you also performed in
It’s a huge amount of
works. It’s impossible
to give a precise figure. I
have studied about 250300 composers. When
you talk about “serious
music” we are talking
about 500 musicians and
composers, but when
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Photo: Paweł Sawicki
Are you able to estimate after all years of
research what was the
number of persecuted
composers?
Ensemble Voix Étouffées concert in Oświęcim Music School
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rope. We plan to publish
a handbook for teachers
about relationship between the Holocaust and
music or the Holocaust
and culture in general.
We also plan to develop
our cooperation we have
here with Auschwitz
Memorial and other
institutions. Next year
we would like to try to
create an exchange between the music school
in Oświęcim and a music
school in France. There
are works that were
composed at that time
that could be used by
children. There is for example a children opera
“Brundibar” by a Czech
composer Hans Krasa.
The piece was composed
in Prague in 1938 but it
was mostly performed
in the ghetto in Terezín
in 1943 and 1944. It was
sung by children between 7 and 14. Most
of them were deported
to Auschwitz. Also the
composer was murdered
in the camp in October
1944. If we could form
this cooperation on this
specific work, it would
give a huge symbolic
valule.
Paweł Sawicki
International Youth Meeting Center
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
WITH A CLEAR BROW
GRZEGORZ TURNAU’S CONCERT FOR IGOREK BARTOSZ
n 22 April Grzegorz Turnau performed at the Music School
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in Oświęcim that was packed to capacity. The artist sang for
Igorek Bartosz, who is suffering from cancer. The organizers of the
Photo: IYMC
concert were the International Youth Meeting Center and the State
Music School in Oświęcim.
All those who attended the
concert were given beautiful flowers, offered by Tomasz Polak from the Śląska
Giełda Kwiatowa in Tychy,
thanks to the work of Lucyna Pasternak. The performance, which was not only
a musical feast, was given
a standing ovation by the
audience. During his humorous exchanges with the
audience, Grzegorz Turnau,
talked about the beginnings
of his singing career, his
first love, and “youthful
sins,” and each anecdote included a musical commentary. He parodied: among
others, John Lennon and
Marek Grechuta, to the audience laughter, while his
greatest hits were sung together with the entire audience.
Before the concert, Rotary
Club Oświęcim held another collection drive for
Igorek Bartosz. The artist
himself appealed for generosity, dedicating the famous words to the parents:
“… really, nothing is happening and nothing is going
to happen, until the end…”
And truly—there was no
lack in generosity that evening. As a result of the collection for Igorek’s treatment,
the account of the Childrens’ Foundation “Help in
Time” will receive 10 thousand Zloty! This excellent
result was possible, among
others, thanks to the help of
artists: Kalina Dulko, Józef
Hołard, Janusz Karbowniczek, Halina Kozioł, Elżbieta
Kuraj, Adam Pociech, Waldemar Rudyk, and Paweł
Warchoł. Artwork donated
by them was awarded to
those who offered the largest donations for Igorek’s
cause. And I think everyone
who came to the concert,
came out—with what Grzegorz Turnau asked for—“a
clear brow” and a sense
that, together, we can overcome the greatest obstacles.
The organizers wish to
thank friends who made it
possible for the successfully
hosting the concert. They
are: Maria Anna Potocka,
Ula Maj—Director of OCK,
Waldemar Rudyk—Director of MOKSiR in Chełmek,
Tomasz Polak, Lucyna Pasternak, Grzegorz Gniady,
and Marcin Boiński.
preparation phase and during the show; this reinforced
the aspect of cooperation
and made the participants
conscious of the uniqueness
of the extraordinary moment,
strengthening the ties between the participants who
worked together during the
first week of the exchange.
That is why the meeting in
Germany, after half-a-year
break, did not start with a
get-to-know session, but instead long awaited greetings.
We left Poland on Sunday, 11
April, the day after the catastrophic Polish air disaster.
At the initial meeting there
was no lack in expressions
of sympathy from the German participants and educators for the Polish group.
The words and gestures of
understanding created the
immediate renewal of friendship, trust and willingness to
rebuild cooperation in the
coming days.
The main element connected
to the first part of this project
was a visit to the temporary
exhibition in the National
Gallery in Stuttgart entitled:
Bruecke, Bauchaus, Blaue Reiter. The exhibit consisted of
works from a private collection, 250 unknown until recently pieces of the highest
art. Participants could marvel at, among others, Ludwig
Kirchner’s drawings, Edvard
Munch’s lithographs, Max
Beckmann and Emil Nolde’s
oil paintings.
The tour focused on the idea
of degenerate art (in German
entartete Kunst). This is the
term the Nazis used for art
that was not in line with their
ideology, created by artists
who were “racially inferior.”
This is how participants
were able to see examples of
great German art that did not
belong to the official art of
the Third Reich. During discussions and work in groups
the young people contemplated: if there is a limit to
artistic freedom? How wide
a margin of freedom should
the artist have? Should the
state regulate art? Who decides what is art and what is
a simple provocation? Apart
from the subject of the April
meeting, there was not a lack
of artwork. The participants
worked on a film as well as
in creating a dance spectacle.
Ewa Lewandowska wrote
about the participants’ work
during the workshops: “The
huge amount of energy and
creativity of the participants
meant that the adult educators of the project had only
the opportunity to stand
back and observe as the
spectacle took shape and in
moments of need, discreetly
help. The young people, perhaps intuitively, but with a
surprisingly strong result,
read the signals of the organizers, accumulated their
experiences and thoughts in
the creation, and certainly
will never again be simple
witnesses of history, but will
also never be uncritical consumers of culture.”
Joanna Klęczar
Grzegorz Turnau
ARTISTIC FREEDOM
A
project “Human Rights Yesterday—Human Rights Today: Artistic Freedom” that involved a two-part exchange of youth
has come to an end. In April, young people from Oświęcim,
Toruń, Zielona Góra, and from Germany, Weil der Stadt, met for the
second time. The first part of the exchange happened in September
2009 at the International Youth Meeting Center. Young Poles and
Germans waited half a year to take part in the second part of the
program—in beautiful Bad Liebenzell, where the longtime partner
of the IYMC in this project has its headquarters, the International
Forum Burg Liebenzell.
The coordinator of the project was most pleased that
almost all the participants of
the first part of the program
participated in the second,
which took place in Germany. This was seen as the successful result of the project in
Oświęcim and the challenge
of making the following
week of the project live up
to the participants’ expectations. Now, after returning
home, after reading the evaluation of participants, it’s
known that they have succeeded and the second part
of the project was an ideal
complement to the week at
the IYMC.
The goal that the organizers of both parts of the exchange wanted to achieve
was, above all, making the
participants aware of the
right for artistic and cultural
freedom as a part of an open,
democratic society as well as
to point out situations, which
had occurred in the past or
are taking place in the present where these rights are
being trampled.
In Oświęcim there was heavy
emphasis on the historical
aspects: of persecution, destruction of the intelligentsia,
world culture and art by the
Nazi regime. A major part of
the meeting was dedicated
to the subject of Auschwitz,
above all, illegal camp art
by prisoner-artists as well as
how they risked their lives
to create, its role in staying
psychologically free and
escaping camp reality. Led
by Ewa Andrzejewska from
Zielona Góra, were theatrical
workshops that were supposed to—on the one hand,
help in the learning about
the history of Auschwitz and
in dealing with emotions
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that were experienced in
this place—and on the other
hand, let the participants feel
like artists, feel what artistic
freedom means in terms of
the possibilities manifested
in themselves to present
their work on the stage and
finally feel that the impact
the artists and their art have
on the audience.
The theater workshop was
also an opportunity for participants drawn from two
different cultures for mutual inspiration and mutual
support while making art.
Theatrical work was ideal
for the international groups.
Gestures, props, sound and
light easily substitute spoken language in theater, so
it serves as a communicator, and breaks the language
barrier. The performance
was a great experience for
the participants, both in its
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Teresa Miłoń-Czepiec
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International Youth Meeting Center
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
POLISH-GERMAN
ARTISTIC
WORKSHOPS
F
rom the 23 to 29 of March the first Polish-German comic book
workshops took place at the International Youth Meeting
Center in Oświęcim, in cooperation between the Educational
Department of the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the Educational
Department of the IYMC in Oświęcim.
The first part of the project
took place in November 2009
at the IYMC Sachsenhausen
as an element of a model
project Art—Space—Remembrance. The second part of
the project in March allowed
for another seven-day meeting of twenty students
from secondary schools in
Siedlce, Oranienburg, Warsaw and Oświęcim. Artistic
care over the Polish-German
workshop was in the hands
of graphic and comic book
artist Łukasz Mieszkowski
from Warsaw and artist
Thorsten Streichardt from
Berlin. The point of the seven-day workshop session
was confronting the history
of the two Warsaw uprisings (the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising in 1943 as well
as the Warsaw Uprising in
1944) and the fate of Warsaw’s civilian population
that was deported to Auschwitz during the Warsaw Uprising and after it had been
crushed.
The seminar group spent the
first two days of the project
in Warsaw. During the tour
around the city, the group
visited the places connected
with the history of the uprisings of Warsaw as well
as the Warsaw Ghetto. The
German and Polish partici-
pants visited the Nożyk Synagogue at Twarda Street, the
only that was partially destroyed during World War
II and later restored. Before
the Second World War,
Warsaw had the largest Jewish Qahal in Europe consisting of 350,000 members.
Before the War, the Nożyk
Synagogue was one of the
five biggest synagogues in
Warsaw, built at the turn of
the 19th and 20th century.
Unlike all the other Warsaw
synagogues, it survived the
Second World War because
the German occupiers used
it as a horse stable.
During the tour, above all,
significant moments in history were highlighted, as
well as the fate of individual people and known individuals such as Mordechaj
Anielewicz—leader of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The participants visited
the place, at 18 Miła Street,
where the bunker was in
which he lost his life on 8
May 1943; and also visited
the Warsaw Uprising Museum, where they observed
the work of the Spoken
History Archive. This was
also preparation for a meeting with a witness to history, Janina Rekłajtis (nee
Papiernik), who as a nine-
Photo: IYMC
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Photo: IYMC
-year-old was deported to
Auschwitz with her mother
two days after the start of
the Uprising.
The meeting with Janina
Participants of the workshop
Rekłajtis was especially
moving because in her something the Germans ef- drew a picture of a hisgraphic descriptions she was fectively prevented. Janina, torical event, which in the
able to recall many details of as the youngest of three (she last days most powerfully
stayed in their memory or
a picture showing what is
most important in their life.
JANINA REKŁAJTIS,
The participants worked
NEE PAPIERNIK
together with the help of a
comic book illustrator to creWas born in 1934, spent her childhood in occupied Warate the first five topics of the
saw. During the uprising she, along with her mother and
project: children, dreams,
brother, had traumatic experiences in “Zieleniak”, which
the Warsaw Uprising, famwas one of the transit camps (that was on the way to one
ily, and humiliation. Basted
of the following transit camps at Pruszkow), located on
on these five topics, they
the site of a former produce market, so called Zieleniak
created five Polish-German
(today Hale Banacha). Until the evening of 5 August
groups, working together
1944, several thousand residents of the Ochota district
2-3 days on the history—
and surrounding areas were held there. From the start,
personally most important
Zielaniak was a place of mass murder. The following
to them—that would then
place little Janka was sent after “Zieleniak” and Pruszbe reshaped in the form of a
kow was the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where she
comic strip.
spent almost half a year. After the War, Janina married
Helpful in this were drawan officer of the Fire Department and worked as a clerk.
ings that the young people
She lives in Warsaw to this day.
created from sketches they
made during their stay. The
the occupation and her time had a sister and brother), first part of the workshops
in the camp. Among the often dressed in the clothes in Sachsenhausen, particimemories she shared was passed down from her pants worked individually
the moment of deportation older siblings and remem- on their own comics. Here,
from Pruszków to Ausch- bered vividly as her mother the goal was to work towitz and the behavior of the bought a beautiful dress and gether and come up with
Polish people, who tried to fur coat for her First Com- an idea that would be transhelp the deportees by giv- munion, which she took formed into a project for the
ing them water and food, with her to the camp. The Polish-German groups. This
moment when her civlian way of working was well reclothes were taken from her ceived by all as because of it,
at the sauna in Birkenau, she the Polish-German groups
cried alone and in grief. At could integrate themselves
the time, she became aware well and the small work
that her situation is dras- groups allowed for intense
tically different from her historical discussion.
earlier childhood when she On the last day of the semiproudly paraded in her new nar, a volunteer from the
dress and little coat around Action Reconciliation SerWarsaw’s old town. After vice for Peace Daria Varytwo intense days in War- vod of the Ukraine, guided
saw, the participants came the group around Oświęcim
to Oświęcim, bringing with and showed its history from
them Janina’s appeal to the the German, Polish, and
young generation that they Ukrainian perspective. The
work to prevent any wars. last day also saw the presAt the International Youth entation of the five comMeeting Center, as part of ics from the project. The
the project, the young peo- successful Polish-German
ple followed the fate of War- workshop ended at a goodsaw Jews and Mrs. Janina bye get—together, during
Rekłajtis’, among them, by which everyone looked forvisiting the Auschwitz Me- ward for future meetings
morial together. Reflections, during the next project.
feelings, and hopes of the
Anna Meier
participants were put down
(Translated from German by
on paper after the visit to
Ela Pasternak)
the Museum—each person
A comic strip made during the workshop
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
IN THE MIRROR OF THE HOUSE
Photo: Bartłomiej Senkowski
O
n the other side of the mirror, incredible things happen, magical…
On the other side of the mirror we uncover a different view of the world…
On the other side of the mirror we see ourselves as we really are.
that sums up its work. In
the enchanted land of mirrors, on the other side of
the House, a mime from the
theater “Teatr Gry i Ludzie”
led visitors along a torch
lined gravel path.
The interior of the house
glistened with mirrors.
Crossing its threshold, the
House Dwellers entered the
land of mirrors. Venetian
and Phoenician mirrors,
silvery water mirrors and
Photo: Bartłomiej Senkowski
And it was in this enchanted place, on the other side
of the mirror that the Good
Spirits met—Friends and
Donors of the International
Youth Meeting Center during the annual celebration
From the left: Beata Paluch, Anna Radwan-Gancarczyk, and Ewa Kaim
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even curved ones. In the
past, mirrors were used to
tell the future, to watch distant events and faces, predict the future. Reflections,
whether faithful of reality, or not, and desire were
sought in them. That evening at the IYMC, among the
mirrored decorations, we
could see ourselves though
a magical gift. Thanks to
the free pocket mirrors, for
men and women, so that
we could see our alter ego,
and thanks to (very unfairytalishly) Alicja (Bartuś)—
to look in the mirror of the
House to see all that it has
been able to accomplish in
the past year. These events
were important and not
banal, just like the visit of
the Chairman of the European Parliament, Jerzy
Buzek, during the project
“1939/1989: A Time of Guilt
and a Time of Hope.”
The director of the IYMC
Leszek Szuster said that,
“visits of young people to
the IYMC in Oświęcim are
a chance and opportunity to
reflect in this special place.
Through the prism of its
history, you can see your
own sensitivity, empathy,
and tolerance. By meeting
with witness of history you
can experience ‘a reflection’
of their extraordinary fate
of the people who had been
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put into inhumane situations, and the choice is to
ask ourselves important
questions about their identity, attitude, and behavior.” These are important
and true words.
The International Meeting
Center has been this kind of
mirror for years. It is a road
that winds through distant
and contemporary history.
In it, key aspects of society
and politics are reflected.
Here ideas are reflected,
here prejudice and stereotypes are smashed into tiny
pieces. Young people from
all over the world, searching
for truth and themselves,
come to the Center. They
want to see. And in this
special place—looking into
the mirror of history, they
can see everything that, for
them, is true, real, and that
which enriches them. That,
which can be seen, turns
into the “mirror” of that
which is unseen. Here they
can experience and understand that. What helps them
is the extraordinary staff of
the Center, who work with
160 groups annually, taking
study tours as well as realize over twenty educational
programs for young people. In the past year, over
five thousand young people have taken part in these
programs.
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
Photo: Bartłomiej Senkowski
Photo: Bartłomiej Senkowski
for the project “1939/1989:
A Time of Guilt and a Time
of Hope”; as well as the exceptional ability to create
new realities—not only in
the exhibition halls.
In the category “Business”
the Good Sprit statue was
accepted by Jerzy Brniak
(Director of BP Poland)
for the years of financial
support of the most important cultural events at
the IYMC, for the deep understanding of the concept
behind the Center, and for
the exceptional ability to
combine the position of
manager with the sensitivity of a civilian.
Distinguished in the category of “Artist,” was Ewa
Kaim, an actress of the
National Old Theatre in
Krakow, lecturer at PWST.
She was honored for her
local patriotism as well as
loyalty to old friends, for
talent, artistry and graceful
acting.
At the evening’s end,
the guests could visit the
“Room of Sudden Change”
and leave the IYMC with a
magical photograph, which
was the joyful effect of the
“change,” and simultaneously a wonderful cure for
all fears, worries, and sadness. This magical change
was dedicated with best
wishes, to our son, Igorek,
who is battling cancer, so
that he wins as soon as possible…
For this and many other
magical evenings, we give
our sincere thanks!
Monika Bartosz
Jerzy Brniak (Director of BP Poland),
IYMC Good Spirit Award in the “Business category”
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Maria Anna Potocka—Director of the Contemporary Art Museum in Krakow receiving
the IYMC Good Spirit Award in the “Creator of reality” category
Photo: Bartłomiej Senkowski
Photo: Bartłomiej Senkowski
However, the International
Youth Meeting Center is
also a mirror of reality. It
is the organizer of important events: cultural, artistic, and educational. At all
times, we strive for what
is important, close to each
one of us, current, and
needed… Keeping in mind
the saying: think globally, act locally—the IYMC
takes us to the other side of
the mirror every day, to a
different world—a world
of deeper reflection, study
tours, and the admiration
of art.
We have witnessed this
admiration once more…
When, in front of the guests
that evening, the mime
“broke” the curtain that is
the mirror and we found
ourselves in the Krakow
Cellar Under the Rams, on
the other side of the mirror.
In this land of the cellar
waiting for the guests were
the great actres’s of the
National Old Theatre in
Krakow: Ewa Kaim, Anna
Radwan-Gancarczyk, and
Beata Paluch as well as accompanying them, Janusz
Butrym, who enchanted
the audience with a daring
cabaret and music show.
The culminating moment
of the evening was the
awarding of the IYMC
Good Spirits Statues. In the
category of “Creator of Reality,” Maria Anna Potocka, director of the Museum
of Contemporary Art in
Krakow, was honored for
inspiration and fruitful cooperation with the Center
by organizing the exhibition by Edward Dwurnik
“The Artist and History”
Ewa Kaim receives the IYMC Good Spirit Award from August Kowalczyk
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Jewish Center
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
POLAND MULTICULTURALISM
UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS
OF THE PIONEERS OF TOLERANCE
I
t is commonly thought that since the end of the Second World War, Poland is an ethnically and culturally
homogeneous country, lacking in the pre-War national and religious mosaic. Is this notion 100% correct?
Are all the citizens of our country truly the same? If not, then what does that mean? Looking for an answer
to this and other similar questions are a chosen group of nearly 30 students of high schools in Oświęcim and
the surroundings, who attended workshops at the Jewish Center.
Photo: JC
which has the goal to shape
openness to others and inspire to question their own
and other people’s stereotypes.
In April, the first such
meeting took place. The
Pioneers of Tolerance invited Azat Poghosyan, an
Armenian student living in
Warsaw. After a short presentation by one of the participants on the history and
culture of Armenians, an interesting conversation took
place. Azat talked about his
arrival to Poland, and how
as a teenager found himself
in a new environment, not
knowing the language or
local culture. The pioneers
asked the guest about difficult and easy experiences,
cultural similarities and
differences between Armenians and Poles, as well as
his feelings towards both
countries and future plans.
The meeting took place in
a warm and open atmosphere. Azat also brought
the Pioneers thoughtful
gifts, bookmarks created
by children who attend the
Armenian school in Warsaw.
We look forward to the
next meeting in May, when
a young Jewish woman
named Nitzan Reisner
will visit us. We invite
you to follow the program
at www.poconamtolerancja.pl.
Azat Poghosyan during a meeting with Pioneers of Tolerance
aversion or indifference. It
is difficult to overestimate
the importance of discussions on this issue and the
conclusions in context of
the history of the nearby
former Nazi Conentration
Camp Auschwitz.
After this preparation, the
participants taking part in
the program put people,
who are a minority living
among Poles, under the
microscope. Meetings with
such people are the second
element of our program,
One day, I received a phone call from the director of the
Jewish Center in Oświęcim, who proposed that I do a
workshop for local youth in the framework of the project
“What Do We Need Tolerance For?”.
Without a second thought, I agreed, but before my trip I
talked about this with my acquaintances to get some tips
and I was surprised that many people, upon hearing
“workshops with young people from Oświęcim” said that
it would be a difficult challenge. To this day, I do not understand the difficult question of the Town of Oświęcim. Visually, this town has been deprived of any type of joy, youth,
urban art, cultural events, and so on. I am amazed that the
fact that the historical events has had such an impact on the
stereotypical view of the town.
When I was in Oświęcim, I did not have the impression
the citizens were different, and talks with young people
from Oświęcim did not differ from dialogues I had in other
towns. This theory is mainly aimed at those people who
upon hearing the words “Oświęcim,” are reminded of the
historical facts, about which we read in school textbooks.
Thanks to my talks with the young participants of the program “What Do We Need Tolerance For?” I was struck that
respecting other cultures is something as important as our
everyday activities. I also understood that we do not talk
about topics dealing with tolerance often enough. I came
away with the feeling that the participants of the program
have much knowledge about the topics of tolerance and
multiculturalism. I was really impressed by the questions
directed to me. They concerned the culture of the country
where I was brought up. I was surprised by a question concerning the role of women in Armenian culture. The girl
asking this question made me feel as if I was on a machine
taking me on a sociological journey. I answered, with difficulty using the words of a Polish artist, who in the 1960s
during an interview for French television on a similar question concerning the role of women in Poland sarcastically:
“A woman in Poland is like a princess, they do not have
to work.” I think that meeting with young people was a
unique adventure, which I had never before experienced.
Azat Poghosyan
Maciek Zabierowski
Photo: JC
During the “Pioneers of
Tolerance” first three meetings, the young workshop
participants looked at their
own perception of other
people, talking about stereotypes and prejudices common in their universe and
their impact on those affected by them. Film screenings, interactive exercises
as well as discussions gave
our pioneers a moment to
experience feelings of being in the minority, and
struggle with the human
WHAT DO YOUNG PEOPLE
NEED TOLERANCE FOR…
Pioneers of Tolerance with Azat Poghosyan
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Jewish Center
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
ATTEMPTING TO EXPERIENCE WHAT
CANNOT BE EXPERIENCED
O
9:30 p.m. At the intersection of Legionów and
Leszczyńskiej Streets a
group of people started
to gather. Each came here
for a different reason.
Some out of sheer curiosity, while others came because they wanted to take
part in the event. After a
certain time, a person who
stood out—undoubtedly
due to the way she was
dressed and, at the same
time, her mood, joined
the participants. She was
dressed in white and gave
off an aura of good nature
and warmth. This was
the creator of the installation, Agnes Janich. After
a few words of introduction, she invited us for the
show, which gave us the
exceptional opportunity to
take the role of actors and
audience members at the
same time. As she said at
the beginning: “I am only
the cause, and you are the
creators.”
Each person took with
them five items: a candle,
little boat, lighter, a piece
of paper, and pen. The
whole time an atmosphere
of secrecy accompanied us,
which was created by the
dark forest, the calming
moonlight. Surrounded by
the burning torches, we
form a half-circle, to listen
to further instructions of
the artist. Agnes asks us
to go back in time about
70 years to a street in Krakow. It is a calm Sunday
evening and we are taking
a stroll, but suddenly the
peace is broken with a yell
and overwhelming fear.
Łapanka!!! [Street roundup] Some people manage
to escape or hide, but the
majority are caught and finally end up as ash on the
Soła riverbed.
These events still carry
with them emotions, pain,
but they involve our grandparents’ generation, who
should be remembered
and honored—we have the
immense luck to live here
and now. Each of us lights
a candle. On the card we
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write the name of living
persons that we love and
are dear to us. Next, with
our thoughts we burn the
piece of paper in the little
boat with the candle and
let it go to flow in the river
current. As long as we can,
we watch the point of light
float farther away from us.
Quoting the words of the
artist, the performance of
“A Light in the Darkness”
is an “ephemeral living
monument, which aims to
remind of what used to be,
but also a reminder of the
loved ones we love today.”
This experience enriches us
internally, giving the feeling of spiritual oneness.
Photo: Adam Pelc
n April 25 in Oświęcim, next to the
Soła River, we were able to participate in a unique artistic event.
“A Light in the Darkness”—was the title
of the performance installation by Agnes
Janich, a young Polish artist. The organizers of the project were the Auschwitz Jewish Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK.
Agnes Janich
INTERVIEW WITH ANGES JANICH
Poland more often—always between trips to installations, exhibits in New York and Warsaw. Wintethur
and Barcelona have allowed me to experience a different audience. In Winterthur everyone cried, in Barcelona—they smiled and held hands. Those were also
the reviews. For private reasons, Auschwitz means
something special to me. I don’t want to talk about
that because I want to respect someone’s privacy. For
all of humankind, this place is a symbol of mass, industrial murder.
Why have you chosen this path in life and this profession?
There is no other way, this is a calling.
Performance art is a difficult form of self-expression
of what you want to say and to what you want to draw
attention. Do you, as such a young person, feel that
your art is accepted by all age groups?
Everyone is as old as they feel. I think that I reach
those who want someone to reach them, they came
here, follow my exhibits, or watch from a distance. I
hope that I have also reached some by God’s will, a
passer-by, a child… I was asked at a meeting with the
public in Krakow if I had a target audience. My response was—Humankind.
Where do you get your inspirations from for further
projects and are you, by nature, a pessimist, optimist,
or perhaps you are grounded firmly on Earth as a realist—does this then find its way into your work?
This has changed. For five years I had depression, my
head shaved like a woman going to the gas, a black
turban, black clothes, and I obsessively visited concentration camps—I was in 19—in snow, wind, rain,
walking. I tried to experience something that cannot
be experienced. I ruined every relationship that was
offered to me, I only had my obsessive love for those
people who were touched by Genocide, who you usually love at a distance. Slowly, consciously, I started
to look for life in these projects, permission—God or
my calling—to be a woman and mother, friend and
lover. And this is how I started to do projects about
love, relationships, but also about violence, but in
other contexts and on a different scale. I always somehow analyze pain, but a different kind. As Professor
Joanna Tokarska-Bakir wrote about me, “for comparing love to Genocide, I am punished like Sarah Kane.”
But hearing from the audience “thank you for coming
to Oświęcim, now we will live better here,” or “thank
you for sharing positive energy with the world” I am
convinced, again and again, that its worth it.
In relation to your performance installation “A Light
in the Darkness”, I wanted to ask about bringing out
emotions from your audience, and which are the most
important to you and why?
In one of the essays about my art, Dr. Thyrzy Nichols
Goodeve from Artforum speaks about the obsessive
attempt to experience the Genocide on your own skin
—and not that of grandparents. Lyle Rexer, from Aperture—about a call to remember. Other subjects are also
breeched. I leave this for individual interpretation.
Pain, anxiety, joy, hope—each of us are different and
we all have that right. I learn quite a bit from reactions
of my audience and meetings with the public.
You have done similar projects in many parts of
the world. Please tell us why in Poland you chose
Oświęcim and did the immediate neighbor, the former Auschwitz camp, play any kind of role?
I always wanted to see this project done near the former Auschwitz camp. Only since last year, I am in
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Interview by: Monika Bernacka
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Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
THERE ARE MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO DISCUSS,
BUT IT IS BETTER TO REMAIN SILENT HERE
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pril 9 a pilgrimage of 27 German seminarians took place from the diocese of Passau. The group toured
Oświęcim and took part in the Stations of the Cross at the former Nazi German Concentration and Death
Camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The group was lead by the Bishop of Passau, Wilhelm Schramm, who was
interviewed by Wiktor Boberek.
How do you, Bishop,
feel at Auschwitz today
as a German and member of clergy?
This is not my first visit
to Auschwitz. I was
here several years ago,
also as part of a delegation during a conference
of German bishops in
Częstochowa August 15,
1987. At the time, Cardinal Höffner, Chairman
of the Conference of
German Bishops, led the
delegation and we also
visited this emotionally
moving site. When you
ask how I feel, I can only
say: there are many opportunities to discuss,
but it is better to remain
silent here. Stay silent,
above all, because of the
great hatred that people
are capable of. When
people are brimming
with such deep hatred,
contempt for man, and
if something such as this
could happen then we
can only remain speechless and ask for forgiveness. We can reach out
to one another, but never
forget.
Bishop, why have you
decided to come here
with a group of theology students, future
priests?
Among all the places
you have mentioned,
Bishop, there is also
Oświęcim with the former Auschwitz Concentration Camp. It is
a place of enormous
suffering for the Jewish people as well as
the Poles. Bishop, do
you believe that in this
place reconciliation is
possible?
There is no other alternative than to reach out to
one another in this place.
We must profess what
has happened here; we
cannot forget and must
learn lessons here, so
that this can never happen again. However,
we must focus our eyes
to the future. Father
Maximilian Kolbe, in
1939, said to his brethren as he took leave of
his monastery: “do not
forget about love.” Today, these words deeply
move me, here in this
place where he lost his
life. Do not forget about
love. Love has to have
the strength for reconciliation.
What is Auschwitz?
Auschwitz is a crime
that cannot be comprehended. If Christ’s message is not actively witnessed to, then people
put themselves in place
of God. Then the person
is abused, humiliated,
and that is when they
are deprived of honor,
they are nothing, only
annihilated.
cannot forget that what
happened at Auschwitz
is history for the new
generation. We must
show this history to
young people, teach it,
and have them comprehend how the crime was
carried out during the
Nazi era. I grew up during the time of National
Socialism. As an altar
boy I saw, one Sunday,
a priest from my parish
say during the sermon:
“the War is lost, do not
believe in Hitler,” and
upon leaving the pulpit,
he was arrested by the
SS. He was deported to
the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, located in
my homeland. We must
tell young people about
this, these histories, and
make this enormous
crime something they
can comprehend. This
is what happens when
people move away from
God.
How does the German
Church handle the
question of Auschwitz?
The question about
God is heard here very
often. We often hear:
“Where was God? Was
God with the prisoners of Auschwitz? If He
was, then how did He
let this happen?”
In dialogue we must
speak about everything,
everything that is associated with Auschwitz.
This must be discussed,
above all, with the
young generation. We
I would be careful to
quickly answer the
question “where was
God?”. As Christians
we also do not have to
be ashamed, while with
Jesus on the Cross we
sing the Psalm “My God,
why have you abandoned me?” This is also
the reality in our own
life, but here in Auschwitz in an unimaginable
way. In spite of this, in
this horrifying gloom,
in this darkness, there
were points of light,
witnesses to faith. I am
thinking of Edith Stein
and Father Maximilian Kolbe, who I have
always revered. This
was a support to many,
who could not say it,
but thanks to them they
could look to the future.
These were small, humble lights that shined in
the gloom. But we also
have the right to the
accusative psalm, “My
God, why have you
abandoned me?” I was
asked this while I was
in Auschwitz, standing by the Death Wall.
God, why did you allow this to happen? Of
course you are omnipotent. The answer can be
found here thanks only
to Jesus’ suffering on
the Cross. If I did not
believe in the Crucified,
I would doubt in such a
place. This is my answer.
It is therefore justified;
in that place where I
sing the Easter Alleluia,
and by that I give testimony: salvation is in the
Cross and in the Risen
Lord. It is the message
to us from the Cross:
“Do not forget about me.”
Photo: CDP
Every year, I travel with
students of my seminary to sites that are
important to Christian-
ity: Rome, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela,
Lourdes, and Poland:
Częstochowa, Krakow,
Oświęcim. For me these
are very important places that one must get to
know, where you have
to be to understand everything. It is important
for me to come here with
young people, so that
they can personally experience this place. That
is why we are here. The
second reason is the fact
that in my diocese there
are many Polish priests.
They are in monasteries
as well as priests in the
diocese. They come to
Germany and, of course,
speak about their homeland. Spending time in
Częstochowa, or here
in Oświęcim, they see
a great opportunity in
forming deeper personal
bonds. With our own
eyes we can see their
homeland.
Stations of the Cross in Birkenau
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Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation
Photo: CDP
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
Seminarians meeting with Father Manfred Deselaers
A month ago we had
a retreat at our Center.
The topic of this was Jesus’ cry “ My God, why
have you forsaken me?”
This was a call out to
God full of doubt…
I would not talk now
about doubt, but I would
say that God hid his face
as a Christian, but He is
there. Even if you do not
feel Him, I always do in
discussions with people
here in the camp, regardless of their nationality
or faith, I bear witness
to my beliefs, however, I
would not dare impose
my beliefs on others. I
would try to explain to
them that in spite of this,
I believe in God, even if
He is not present and I
would show respect for
the beliefs of others.
Can Auschwitz be described as a test that He
has set out for people?
I would not call this a
test. Something took
place earlier. Hitler and
his henchmen distanced
themselves from God.
You see, Goebbels had
said, “We are going to
war as we go to mass”
and people screamed in
ecstasy. This happened
before the war. I would
not talk about a test set
out for us by God here.
It was most certainly
like that, but first there
was the person. And the
person first distanced
himself from God. During the time of the Sec-
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How should this be understood in the context
of the German nation,
a nation brought up in
Christianity?
When a person distances
himself from God, when
they
distance
themselves from their calling,
it makes it more difficult
for them to understand
their sin. They create
their own measure of
good and evil. This also
concerns us, also in Germany. In Germany, the
process of secularization
is taking place suddenly.
Faith in certain situations does not play a role
(killing of human life in
the womb, euthanasia).
All barriers are broken.
So can we say that God
tests us from time to
time? And it is then that
we show who we truly
are.
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People come here with
these questions and
seek answers.
In this sense, you have
a
challenge
before
you. People are literally destroyed, finished,
when they take note of
how cruel people can
be. When I was 8 years
old Adolf Hitler passed
through my town of
2,000 people. He was
on his way to Bayreuth
for the Wagner festival. We all had to come
out and stand in a row,
with flags that had the
swastika in our hands.
In each window there
were lamps burning. It
was sheer craziness!
This was self-elevation,
the elevation of oneself to the role of God.
We had to yell, “Heil
Hitler!” That meant,
Since this is all still taking place, then can it be
said, that people are not
learning from their own
mistakes, that they are
not taking any lessons
from Auschwitz?
If you want, than we
can accept that He put
this question to us every
day; and every day we
answer this question in
some way. I hope that
we do not have to do this
ourselves, but we can do
this together with others.
This seems quite important to me. Most likely,
a person would not do
this alone, but when
they get the support of
others, share their expe-
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That is why people come
to you. We must not
ask them “what do you
want?”, but “what do
you need?” What does
a young person need so
that their life turns out,
has meaning, overcome
every crisis, and they
find the right answer to
their questions. What do
they need? It is our task,
no matter where we are.
Just as bishop for me, as
for you, the workers at
this Center. Our task is
in helping answer these
questions. It does not
matter if they accept our
help, or not, it is up to
them. Auschwitz poses
enormous questions.
riences, it makes them
stronger in their fight
for the truth. It is not
disgraceful to make mistakes. People make them,
but they must lift themselves out of them.
ond Reich [sic], I was in
primary school (at the
time a Volksschule). We
could not have a cross in
the classroom. We could
not talk about the subject of religion. We were
purposely isolated from
God. It is difficult for me
to answer the question
if God wanted to test us
here in Auschwitz. Earlier something different
happened here. We live
in times when a man is
also very consistently
moving away from God,
His will and His commandments. We have
before us proof, and we
know what He wants
and what for us is blessed. He is testing us. We
can accept it or not. If we
accept it, then this will
be our blessing, if we
do not—then we create
Auschwitz in a different
form.
Yes, in some respects, I
would say that is the
case.
What do we need? Is
there hope?
Yes. That is why we are
here. That is the reason
for such a large Center.
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“you are our savior, you
are our Messiah.” It is
a crime to deceive such
young children. That is
why the downfall was
so great. This is a lesson
from history. We will do
everything so that this
does not happen again.
John Paul II, the greatest son of Polish history,
showed us the way. We
do good when we follow
his example. His successor, Pope Benedict, is
following his path. He
clearly showed this here
in Auschwitz and Birkenau. On television, I
watched him speak at
Birkenau, and suddenly,
as if by some miracle, a
great rainbow appeared
above the Pope. I was
truly proud then that
the Pope had come here.
It was an important testament that he came as a
German and found the
appropriate words. I
was overjoyed then that
the Vicar of Christ here
on earth is doing something in the intention of
the One he represents
here on earth. He did
not act as if it had not
happened. He called for
reconciliation. He did
this and I was very happy because of it. I know
that many, even among
us understood it this
way. I found out from
the Polish clergy in my
diocese that it had been
understood in such a
way here.
Interview by: Wiktor Boberek
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL
IRENA PTASZYŃSKA
(1919-1992, MARRIED NAMES:
DROST, NOWORYTA)
Born on June 18, 1919 in
Oświęcim, the daughter of
Władysław and Kazimiera, nee Sermak. Her father
(born 1885) was a pharmacist, and owned a pharmacy
in the town. She attended
public school and gimnazjum
in her hometown, earning
her matura (final school examination, conferring the
right to enroll in university).
She began her studies in the
Pharmacy Faculty at the
Jagiellonian University. The
start of the Second World
War prevented her from finishing her studies.
She had been involved in
scouting since childhood,
and showed great commitment to the movement in her
school years; her scouting
experience proved useful
during the German occupation. After the establishment
of Auschwitz Concentra-
tion Camp, she organized a
group of scouts who were
prepared to help the prisoners. The group acquired
food and clothing, and covertly supplied it to prisoners
laboring outside the camp,
sometimes with the tacit
approval of bribed SS men.
Irena Ptaszyńska’s specialty
was acquiring medicine,
to which she had access
through her father’s pharmacy, for the prisoners. The
Germans eventually confiscated her father’s pharmacy, but he went to work
at a pharmacy in Mysłowice,
where he continued to be
able to acquire medicine
for Irena. She, in turn, took
advantage of her and her father’s own contacts to obtain
drugs from other pharmacies in Oświęcim. Another
important area of activity by Irena and the scout
group was correspondence
between the prisoners and
their families. They took
secret messages from the
camp and mailed them to
the indicated addresses,
smuggling the replies back
into the camp. At the end of
1941, Irena was employed
by the German Kluge construction company, which
did contracting work inside
the camp. Irena worked in
an office located directly
adjacent to the camp. This
gave her the opportunity for
direct contact with prisoners
including the noted sculptor
Xawery Dunikowski. She
also stayed in touch with the
camp resistance movement,
who passed documents,
maps, and sketches of camp
buildings to her; she carried
them away and gave them
to the underground. She
worked for Kluge until 1943,
before being employed in
the Agrochemia factory, also
in Oświęcim. She continued
working to help the prisoners.
In 1943, she suddenly lost
all those closest to her. Her
father died. The Gestapo
arrested her mother (born
1897) and her brother Zbig-
VESTIGES OF HISTORY
FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM
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hat can a modest toy made of ribbon and wire hide? Who
would have thought that the little devil with a pitchfork
could hide information of the importance of life and death?
But fact is that the little devil we see here was not in fact intended
for fun or for Christmas pageants, but it served as a hiding place for
prisoners’ secret corr
prisoners
correspondences.
Photo: Collections Depatment, A-BSM
The devil in this extraordinary situation took on the role
of an angel, thanks to which
prisoners had contact with
the outside world. The toy,
made in Auschwitz, found
itself after the war in possession of Kazimierz Hałoń who
was a member in the Auschwitz prisoner underground
as well as a person who
brought help to prisoners.
Working in the Krakow underground, Kazimierz was
arrested and put into the
camp in September 1941.
Thanks to civilian workers,
he quickly got in contact with
his family living in Brzeszcze.
He became involved in the
underground, mainly dealing
in passing of secret messages
describing the camp condtions, later was involved in
organizing food for prisoners,
and escapes from the camp.
Taking advantage of help of
the PPS organization (to which
he, his brother, and father belonged) with his brother—Kazimierz escaped from Auschwitz in February 1943, in a wig
and civilan worker’s clothing.
Not long after, the brothers
Kazimierz and Edward together with other members of
Toy—Little Devil, donated in 1960
by former prisoner from 1941-1944,
Kazimierz Hałoń, to the Auschwitz
Museum Collection.
The devil is made from a
metal piece, wrapped in a ribbon, gray inside and red on
the outside (which has faded
over time, making it orange).
Under the neck—an opening in the material, decorated
with glitter. The head—made
of a piece of fur with a mask
created of paper. The tongue
is made of red felt and it has
a metal pitchfork as well as a
chain in its hand. The wire tail
is covered in paper, finished
with fragments of real fur. At
the back, it has a hood made
from black piece of tulle.
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PPS created an organization
that helped to prisoners in
the camp. Kazimierz’s entire
family took part, his father
Piotr, mother Marianna, brother Edward, and sister Maria.
The Hałońs provided food
and medicine for prisoners
as well as worked as carriers
of illegal correspondence and
reports about Auschwitz. The
secret messages were smuggled out in small packages as
well as various other things:
in rolling pins, keys, and lipstick—which were specially
hollowed out for this purpose.
The devil shaped toy was
most probably created with
the thought about such functions. With its help, mail was
carried out of the camp mainly during the holiday season.
It’s possible that the shape
of the toy had something to
do with the alias of Edward
Hałoń—“Badger,” who led
the resistance movement near
the camp in Brzeszcze. Anyway, it is difficult to overestimate the role played by the
devil in the campaign to help
prisoners.
niew (born 1921) for involvement in the relief effort. Her
brother was a member of the
Home Army (AK), under the
pseudonym “Feliks.” After
their arrest, they were both
sent to camps. Her mother
survived Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, but her
brother perished in GrossRosen.
Immediately after liberation, Irena Ptaszyńska cared
for prisoners who required
treatment. She took several of them home from the
Auschwitz site by sled, and
nursed them for a month in
her apartment. Among them
was a prominent historian
and professor from Warsaw
University, the former Polish
ambassador in The Hague,
Stanisław Kętrzyński.
In 1945, she married the
economist
and
banker
Adam Drost. After the
opening of the State Museum in Oświęcim, she was
employed in the Museum
Workshop. In 1953, she separated from her husband and
moved to Rabka, where she
married the retired judge
Noworyta, with whom she
had a daughter, Maria. She
worked for many years as
a teacher and warden in the
children’s hospital. She died
in Rabka on June 14, 1992.
FROM GANOBIS’S CABINET
PICTURE FROM AUSCHWITZ
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he picture depicts a landscape, a nice scene
painted by Durer. There would not be anything strange about it, if not for the fact
that it was found in Oświęcim in the house of
a high-ranking doctor who brutally murdered
prisoners of Auschwitz and Monowitz camps.
A friend who lives in a house in the Zasole area
of Oświęcim gave me the picture. The house
was inhabited by the above mentioned German doctor during the Second World War. A
document that has been found bears his name
—Dr. Horst Fischer. It looks as if the doctor left
a few more things of his things in Oświęcim.
I have heard stories of, among other things, a
small table with the Waffen-SS emblem as well
as a sold BMW motorcycle.
Photo: M. Ganobis’s archive
Historia
Painting
Horst Fischer was born 31
December 1912 in Dresden.
In 1937, he finished medical
school at the University of
Humbold in Berlin. He joined
the SS soon after Hitler came
to power and enrolled in the
NSDAP in 1937. In November 1942, Fisher was sent to
the Auschwitz Concentration Camp system, where he
took the position of assistant
camp doctor at Auschwitz III-Monowitz. Dr. Fisher also
performed the selections—
both on the ramp in Birkenau
Agnieszka Sieradzka as well as of the sick prisoners
Collections Department in the camp who were unable
to work sent during them to
their deaths.
After the end of the War, he
worked using his real name
as a doctor in Spreenhagen,
in the German Democratic
Republic. Fisher was arrested
on 11 June 1965 on suspicion
of crimes against humanity. His trial before the High
Court of the GDR started on
10 March 1966. The former
SS doctor was given a death
sentence after a 15-day trial.
The sentence was carried out
by guillotine on 8 June 1966 in
Leipzig.
Mirosław Ganobis
A-BSM
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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 17, May 2010
Photographer
On April 25, 2010, an artistic performance of an
installation created by Agnes Janich, entitled
“Light in Darkness” took place. Similar events
were also done in Winterthur and Barcelona,
where the artist described the happenings as
an unforgettable atmosphere of true contact between people. Below is a photo journal by Adam
Pelc of the event.
PHOTO JOURNAL
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