no. 21 September 2010

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O Ś W I Ę C I MISSN 1899-4407ISISISISISISISSNSNSNSNSNSNSNN 1111111898989898989899-9-9-9-999 4444444444444444070707070707ISSN 1899-4407

EDITORIAL BOARD:Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine

Editor:Paweł SawickiEditorial secretary: Agnieszka Juskowiak-SawickaEditorial board:Bartosz Bartyzel Wiktor BoberekJarek MensfeltOlga OnyszkiewiczJadwiga Pinderska-LechArtur SzyndlerColumnist: Mirosław GanobisDesign and layout:Agnieszka Matuła, Grafi konTranslations: David R. KennedyProofreading:Beata KłosPhotographer:Paweł Sawicki

PUBLISHER:

Auschwitz-BirkenauState Museum

www.auschwitz.org.pl

PARTNERS:

Jewish Center

www.ajcf.pl

Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation

www.centrum-dialogu.oswiecim.pl

International Youth Meeting Center

www.mdsm.pl

IN COOPERATION WITH:

Kasztelania

www.kasztelania.pl

State HigherVocational School in Oświęcim

www.pwsz-oswiecim.pl

Editorial address:„Oś – Oświęcim, Ludzie, Historia, Kultura”Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenauul. Więźniów Oświęcimia 2032-603 Oświęcime-mail: os@auschwitz.org.pl

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Today in “Gallery of the Twentieth Century” I will go back to the past with one of my own texts, a short ar-ticle entitled “Sunday at the Museum,” which was pub-lished on the pages of the newspaper “Oświęcimski Chemik” (The Oświęcim Chemist) 38 years ago, in 1972. To remind, confront, and to depict the color of those years with the con-stant and variable image of the Museum, as well as the role of its lasting signifi -cance.“Sunday morning! Wonder-ful weather, fi nally a real summer, sunlit and cheer-ful. It is noisy and crowded in the car park around the kiosk near the museum with mementos and postcards, the ice-cream vendor is en-joying a successful day, and even a wandering merchant has made it here and spread out his festive goods: color-ful balloons and gingerbread hearts. The parking lot is full

with many foreign coaches and cars that have license plates from many European countries. Black Humbers with English plates, and Simkas and Citroens from France, as well as a mighty Dodge model from Swit-zerland. Including coaches from Czechoslovakia and Hungary.Let’s have a closer look at those people who, during their journey through Eu-rope, on their way to a sum-mer vacation put this city and this place, separated from the world by barbed wire, recorded forever in history and human mem-ory, into their plans. Let us separate ourselves for a mo-ment from today, Sunday, with its calm and carefree mood. And once again let’s step into the pilgrims’ past and their memory with the group of visitors, although we have done this so many times. Look at the people, the expressions on their

faces, gestures, watch their reactions, try to read into them, we can only guess what they have experienced.Take one: somewhere off to the side rattles a fi lm camera in a foreign girl’s hands. In the frame is the main gate with its sinister and ironic motto ARBEIT MACHT FREI! The girl perhaps does not understand much about this, she records an image of the place out of habit, as she has so many times before during her travels around the world, but perhaps...Take two: in a deserted room in block 7 an older woman bent over the display case reads photocopies of Nazi documents. Engrossed, she forgot about her group, which, together with their tour guide, has already left the block. She may be both-ered by a word, maybe some trace, for which she has searched for years, and low-ers her head further down ... Let us leave her alone.

We are in block 6. On the ground fl oor, in the corridor, are long rows of hundreds of photos. Rows of the dead, their images, names, num-bers. Visitors walk through here in refl ection and silence. This place has the peren-nial horror of those years left hanging in the air. This is not a nameless object, a plaster model, or an aging document. This is an image of a person who was killed, the shadow of death in their eyes, traces of torment and pain...A snapshot from the front of the crematorium before which a woman stands with her hands over her eyes. It’s not known if she is crying or forbidding her eyes from looking at the dominating view… Finally, the last take, the last snapshot of the many in-stances observed: to the grid-iron gate leading to the Wall of Death, a teenage boy ties a bouquet of a few wild fl ow-ers, poppies, and chamomile. He then returns to his group and they go on…Beyond the gate, on the park-ing lot it is still busy and crowded, new buses are ar-riving. Those leaving the Museum will take with them not only a reminder, not only the feeling of authenticity of this place and knowledge about the past, but also an understanding of dangers and evil against which you have to fi ght in the name of human dignity and life! So that never again ‘people create such a fate for other people’!” This is not my only ar-ticle about the Museum in “Chemik,” or in other pub-lications. I have been always writing about the Museum—and I do this, as you can see, to this day!

Andrzej Winogrodzki

When one looks at the table full of medical instruments (shown on cover), which were most likely used at Auschwitz, it is hard to control one’s emotions and imagination. Many questions arise immediately. How easy it is to change manmade implements to save lives into tools that inflict pain and dehumanize. That happens when a person is treated as an object to which eve-rything can be done. That is how doctors performed experiments in Auschwitz. On the following pages, you will read about this extraordi-nary find.

For already twenty years, students from the Volkswagen vocational schools have come as volunteers to the Auschwitz Memorial Site. They learn about history while working at the Museum. You will read about this in an interview with Christoph Heub-ner, Vice President of the Foundation for the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim. In addition, this month, Daria Varyvod writes about her experience of volunteering at the IYMC for a year.We also draw your attention to an ar-ticle summarizing the halfway point of the “Why Do We Need Tolerance?”

project, conducted at the Jewish Cen-ter, and a text about the European Workshops held at the Center for Dia-logue and Prayer by the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation from Germany. On the second to last page, you will learn the history of the legendary “Ganobis’ cabinet.” Finally, on the last page you can view the photo report from this year’s anniversary commemoration of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s death, which was attended by almost two thousand faithful this year.

Paweł SawickiEditor-in-chief

os@auschwitz.org.pl

A GALLERY OF THE 20TH CENTURY

EDITORIAL

Photo of a group at the Auschwitz Memorial site in 1976

Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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“This is a great event, quite unusual. I never thought that after so many years it would be possible to iden-tify and acquire such a rich collection. Moreover, there are very few items related to the SS doctors’ pseudoscien-tifi c experiments. Evidence of their crimes were either destroyed or consistently sent to the depths of the Reich,” director of the Muse-um Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński emphasized.“The medical instruments found consist mainly of gy-necological and surgical in-struments. Given that they were found near the camp and near the train station, within the so-called Interes-

sengebiet, where there was no other medical facility, there is a very high prob-ability that these are actu-ally medical tools from the camp,” said Dr. Piotr Setkie-wicz, manager of the Mu-seum Research Department.“Presumably, they belonged to the SS doctors, who, be-cause of the experiments they conducted could be in possession of such medical instruments. It is possible that they were owned by SS Brigadeführer, Prof. Dr. Carl Clauberg, who carried out experiments on the steriliza-tion of women in block 10 in Auschwitz. However, three other Nazi doctors cannot be ruled out: Eduard Wirths,

Horst Schumann, or Bruno Weber, who also used fe-male camp prisoners in their experiments. Because of the large number of gynecologi-cal instruments, most likely these came from Clauberg’s experimental station,” add-ed Setkiewicz.“For some time we have been considering, in the con-text of the new exhibition, to open parts of building 10 to visitors. However, apart from a gynecological chair, hospital furniture, and some few ampoules we had vir-tually no other exponents that could be linked to the dramatic fate of the victims subjected to experiments. This collection completely

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

A unique collection of over 150 medical implements was donated to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. The tools were found after the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp, within the area that was closed and inaccessible from outside, the camp interest zone (so-called Interessengebiet),

close to the train station in Oświęcim. They were in private hands for over 60 years and through a local collector and enthusiast of history they were just donated to the Museum.

ASTONISHING COLLECTION OF SURGICAL TOOLS FROM AUSCHWITZ

WAS DONATED TO THE MUSEUM

CARL CLAUBERG

Prof. Dr. Carl Clauberg (a pre-war authority in the treatment of female infertility and during the war the head of the department of women’s diseases in the hospital in Königshütte) performed experiments in Auschwitz to fi nd the most appropri-ate method of sterilization of an unlimited number of people in the shortest possible time as well as using the easiest method possible.Camp Commandant Ru-dolf Höss made block number 10 in Auschwitz available for Clauberg. Located on the second fl oor of this block were two halls, where there were about 150 to 400 Jew-ish women from different countries that were occu-pied by Nazi Germany.The method of non-surgi-cal mass sterilization de-veloped by Clauberg was done under the guise of a gynecological examination and consisted of the intro-duction of a chemical into the female’s reproductive organs. This caused acute infl ammation, and after a few weeks resulted in the overgrowing of the fal-lopian tubes and hence their obstruction. The ef-

fect of the experiments was always checked using X-rays.The procedures described were carried out in a brutal fashion and often caused complications in the form of peritonitis and hemor-rhage, which lead to high fever and general sepsis. In many cases they were the cause of the prisoner’s death. Some women were killed in order to carry out autopsies.

DOCTORS IN AUSCHWITZ

SS camp doctors, who were offi cially supposed to pro-vide medical care to pris-oners of the Nazi German concentration and extermi-nation camp of Auschwitz, in fact did not comply and offer the basic medical care to the prisoners but only created the semblance of proper treatment. They were involved mainly in the mass murder perpetrated in the camp, carrying out selections on transports of Jews deported to Auschwitz for extermination as well as among the sick prisoners in the camp infi rmary, super-vised the process of killing Jews in gas chambers, and were present at the execu-tions. On behalf of German pharmaceutical companies, or due to personal interests,

they experimented on pris-oners, signed thousands of prisoner death certifi cates that gave fi ctitious causes of death.Prisoners remember the following doctors, among others, in a particularly negative way: Carl Clau-berg, Horst Schumann, Jo-sef Mengele, Johann Paul Kremer, Eduard Wirths, Emil Kaschub, August Hirt, Friedrich Entress, Helmuth Vetter.

EXPERIMENTS

Experiments included, among others: sterilization, pharmacological experi-ments that included test-ing the prisoners’ tolerance to the medicine or drug as well as their effectiveness, tests on the changes to the human body due to starva-tion, experiments on twins and people born with dis-abilities.The experiments carried out on prisoners, who were sentenced to live in the most extreme of conditions, were for many a simultane-ous death sentence. SS doc-tors were indifferent to the fate of prisoners used in experiments. Often, to hide the criminal activity, they had their victims killed with a lethal injection of phenol to the heart or in the gas chambers.

Memory is not something that is ac-quired once and stays on forever. The moment that the last eyewitnesses and survivors pass away, we have to work together to build on that which re-mains: the testimonies of those former prisoners and the authentic artifacts connected with Auschwitz. Each item can have its own enormous meaning and should fi nd its place in the collec-tion of the Auschwitz Memorial. Here, it will be preserved, studied, and dis-played. Its place is here.

CONTACT: — COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENTTELEPHONE: +48 33 844 80 17

LET US BUILD MEMORY!

DONATE ANY DOCUMENTS AND OTHER HISTORICAL ITEMS IN

YOUR POSSESSION TO THE AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL

changes everything and the enormity of the German doctors’ crimes will be very clearly presented. This is by far the largest and most im-portant acquisition of camp

items in recent years,” Di-rector Cywiński remarked.The tools as well as the box used for their sterilization will soon be put through the process to preserve them.

The recently discovered surgical tools

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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

EACH ITEM HAS ITS OWN HISTORY

Auschwitz Memorial Site is not just a large open area that includes authentic camp blocks, barracks, and guard towers, but also several thousand objects that have a special charac-ter, emphasis, and sym-bolism. Please explain what can be found in the Museum collec-tions?In our collections we have over 100 thousand different objects. These are mainly things left behind by people who were deported to Ausch-witz: suitcases, dishes, shoes, brushes, and other everyday items. There are also many items that belonged to prisoners, the personal items directly related to their camp life: striped uniforms and wooden clogs. An entirely differ-ent category are items that were left behind by the SS men—everything associated with the func-tioning of the camp from the organizational and military perspective, as well as its garrison, namely: their equip-ment, parts of weapons, and medals.In addition to historical objects we possess in our collection the largest and most unique global collection of concentra-tion camp art. The artis-tic works created under conditions of extreme danger are an extremely valuable document of time and history.

How are all these ob-jects stored? Is there a special way of protect-ing the items?We try to create opti-mal storage conditions, which is not an easy task, bearing in mind

that the warehouses are located in historical for-mer camp buildings. The objects in our collection require an individual approach, and very of-ten the application of innovative solutions in their preservation. Af-ter analyzing the stor-age conditions and state of the objects in 2008, a new concept of changing the storage system was developed, and it is cur-rently being implement-ed as Museum fi nancial resources allow.

What happens to these objects? Are they all stored in warehouses?

A very large proportion is on display and can be seen at the Memorial Site. Other objects are stored in warehouses. The storage rooms are partly air-conditioned, under constant tempera-ture and humidity con-trol. We continuously take new measures to improve the storage con-ditions.

Is there a place in Po-land or somewhere else in the world, where there is a similar col-lection of former camp artifacts?There, where new Ho-locaust museums have

been created there are usually individual camp objects. In most cases, camp items found at other museums are from loans from our collec-tion. According to the Museum statute, we provide access to and loan the items. We have a fairly well developed system of loaning. In accordance with all pos-sible legal precautions, we cooperate with many institutions in the world to organize temporary exhibitions or perma-nent ones based on the objects from our collec-tions. The contract that we sign with the institu-tion we are lending the item to has strictly de-fi ned regulations about the responsibilities of those taking the loan. There is also a clause on the storage conditions and way it is exhibited. Only with these security measures is cooperation possible with such a large number of institu-tions interested in bor-rowing an item. Today, our artifacts can be found in places such as the Holocaust Muse-um in Washington, Yad

Vashem in Jerusalem, or at an exhibition in Bue-nos Aires, Argentina.

Even though many years have passed since the end of the war, ev-ery once in a while the media report newly found objects that are connected with the his-tory of Auschwitz. Is there a chance that in the future we will still fi nd or be able to ac-quire something?Of course, yes. We are constantly acquiring new objects. People come to us who have for decades kept me-mentos of their parents, grandparents, as well as friends. They come with the desire to donate the items to the Museum, because they believe that their place is here.There are also cases where the owners of the objects declare their willingness to donate them to the Museum, but because of emotion-al reasons it is diffi cult to part ways with them—as they had belonged to their loved ones. In such situations, they as-sure us that the property

will be passed on to us, through their last will, after their death.

So, sometimes the item is donated with its en-tire, extraordinary his-tory?Yes, very often we ex-perience such situa-tions. But sometimes it happens that we learn about this history only after doing further re-search. It is of course a part of our work to not only deal with securing and storing the items, but also do the research work, in which we que-ry the history associated with them. Thanks to this, these items are of-ten used later in future educational activities. Interview by: Bartosz Bartyzel

over 80 thousand shoes approximately 3.8 thousand suitcases, including 2.1

thousand with inscriptions left behind by their owners about 12 thousand metal pots 460 pieces of prostheses 570 items of camp uniforms, so-called stripes 260 items of civilian clothing 260 Jewish prayer shawls 6 thousand works of art (including about 2 thousand

made by prisoners in the concentration camps).

THE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS INCLUDE:

AN INTERVIEW WITH ELŻBIETA BRZÓZKA, MANAGER OF THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU STATE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT.

Warehouse containing works of art created in the camp

A signet ring made of hair

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A pipe made by an Auschwitz prisoner

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A snuff box

Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Restoration work has begun on another two former barracks of Auschwitz II-Birkenau: B-210 and B-166. The entire project is fi -nanced by funds from the European Union.

SAVING FROM DESTRUCTION

Barrack B-210, a wooden housing barrack, is the only preserved building within the sector BIIb. During the camp’s operation, it was marked as barrack number 30 and was part of the camp hospital designated for men and women. The building housed two wards: an in-ternal medicine ward for women with children as well as one for those with infec-tious diseases. Its condition is not the best. Atmospheric and biological agents have accelerated the damage; this has in effect threatened the structure of the object. Both outside and inside the bar-rack, the fl oor and heating elements have been pre-served. Interestingly, the furnaces and chimneys have

preserved traces of paint layers, and the chimney is adorned with a decoration—a landscape painting.During the restoration work, the column of the chim-ney located in the exposed part of the barrack has been shored up, while the deco-rative painting and white-wash on the hearth located inside the hut is protected using Japanese tissue paper. All items are marked, which will facilitate the reconstruc-tion of the barracks after the completion of restoration and construction work.Barrack B-166 of the same design in the BIIa sector was built in August 1943 and used as part of quarantine for newly arrived prisoners. The barrack has been fenced

off, the chimneys have been propped up, and the fi re-place and chimney were se-cured with construction foil. All elements of the barracks have been inventoried.All the time, work is also continuing on the barracks B-80 and B-171, which was interrupted for some time due to fl ooding and the threat it posed. In barrack B-80 archaeological research has been carried out in or-der to identify the existing state of the foundation and the ground, work also has begun on deepening and strengthening the founda-tion’s construction. Also maintenance work was car-ried on the wooden win-dows, entrance doors, and internal doors as well as on

the original paint layers on the elements of the wooden barracks.The previously completed conservation work of the wood components of bar-rack B-171 meant that these pieces were transported from the workshop to the Memorial Site and in accor-dance with guidelines, the entire construction was as-sembled. A complete survey and leveling of the concrete fl oors around the latrines

was done. After assembly, an appropriate paint was selected to give the wood a unifi ed color.Maintenance project on fi ve wooden barracks of the for-mer Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp is co-fi nanced by the European Union through the European Regional De-velopment Fund under the Operational Infrastructure and Environment Program 2007-2013.

Iga Bunalska

In the name of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski has named new members of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites (ROPWiM). They replace members of the Council who died in the tragic crash of the Polish presidential aircraft at Smoleńsk, Russia on April

10. Among the new members is Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL DIRECTOR NAMED TO REMEMBRANCE COUNCIL

The victims killed on the ill-fated fl ight to Smoleńsk for anniversary observances at the nearby site of the Katyń Massacre included Czesław Cywiński, Father Andrzej Kwaśnik, President Ryszard Kaczorowski, Tomasz Mer-ta, Stanisław Mikke, Bishop Tadeusz Płoski, and ROP-WiM Secretary Andrzej Przewoźnik. The Council for the Protec-tion of Struggle and Mar-tyrdom Sites is responsible for preserving the memory of the struggles and martyr-

dom of the Polish people. It also oversees martyrdom sites on Polish soil. Its chair-man is Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, who is also chairman of the Internation-al Auschwitz Council. The Secretary of the ROPWiM is Dr. Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert, who is a member of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Council and a member of the international consultative group on the new main exhibition at the Auschwitz Memorial.“The Council for the Protec-

tion of Struggle and Martyr-dom Sites is a very special body. I doubt that there are as many places connected with martyrdom in such dramatic ways and with such a diver-sity of signifi cance in any other country in Europe,” said Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński. “The best known Memorial in the entire world and hu-manity’s greatest cemetery is Auschwitz. It symbolizes, pars pro toto, the entire his-tory of the Holocaust and the system of Nazi German con-centration camps. Today, in the twenty-fi rst century, the

experience of remembrance is being born in the space of Auschwitz on a scale not to be found anywhere else. This is the experience that I would like to bring into the delib-erations of the Council,” said Cywiński.Aside from Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, the new members of the Council include Teresa Hernik, Co-Chairwoman of the Council for Activity in the Public Interest; Krystyna Brydowska, President of the Federation of Katyń Families; Stanisław Oleksiak, Presi-dent of the World Alliance

of Home Army Soldiers; and Piotr Żuchowski, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Cul-ture and National Heritage and General Monuments Conservationist. The Council for the Protec-tion of Struggle and Martyr-dom Sites is a public-service body whose members serve four-year terms and are nom-inated by the President of the Council of Ministers on the advice of the Minister of Cul-ture and National Heritage. There are twenty-one mem-bers.

The ROPWiM is the only state organ in Poland that initiates and coordinates activ-ity connected with the commemoration of historical events, places, and fi gures in the history of the combat and martyrdom of the Polish people in Poland and abroad, as well as the combat and martyrdom of other peoples on Polish territory. Its tasks include:—Overseeing sites of Polish combat and martyrdom and commemorating the associ-ated facts, events, and fi gures.—Overseeing Polish war graves and ceme-teries and war cemeteries of other nationali-ties on Polish soil.—Playing an inspirational role and coop-erating in the organization of observances,

ceremonies, publishing and exhibition initia-tives, and raising the public profi le of places, events, and historical fi gures connected with combats and martyrdom.—Evaluating the condition of and, in regard to locations abroad, organizing and oversee-ing the preservation of sites and permanent objects in the Polish national memory, espe-cially cemeteries, war graves, and cemeteries of the victims of totalitarian systems.—Performing an advisory and supervisory function in regard to museums and memo-rial sites created at the locations of former German concentration camps and extermi-nation centers.

Based on: www.radaopwim.gov.pl

THE COUNCIL FOR THE PROTECTION OF STRUGGLE AND MARTYRDOM SITES

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Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski hands the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński an appointment to the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

Barrack B-120

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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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International Youth Meeting Center

The 25 years of the Inter-national Youth Meeting Center were an adversity, hard work, and struggle for many brave people with vision, the Poles and Germans who created the Center, where you can talk about the terrible history

in a spirit of reconciliation, was a challenge and mis-sion in life. This is exactly what they have created, an institution that not only be-came a landmark of the city, but has played a pioneering role in the normalization of Polish-German relations.

Jan Knycz was one of them. It was fortunate for our Center, that a person with exceptional skills and experience—Eco-nomic Director of Chemi-cal Works Oświęcim, Chairman of the Provin-cial Council in Bielsko-Biała, Chairman of the Oświęcim Municipal Council—decided to sup-port the activities of this institution, which was to change the perception of the city in the country and the world. His role cannot be overestimated during the diffi cult talks in the IYMC creation and his ac-tive social work as a mem-

ber of the Board of Trust-ees. For the last 15 years Jan Knycz has devoted his time to the Center, fi rst as a member of the Board of Trustees, and then as a cre-ative member of the Board of the IYMC Foundation.

Using his experience and high qualifi cations, as if he was the owner, he watched over the fi nances of the Center. His authority was helpful in solving many diffi cult situations and mitigating confl icts. Few people such as Jan Knycz were able to combine their loving actions with a pas-sion for social work. Hence he was known as an active member of associations and organizations working for Oświęcim and its inhabit-ants. For many years sup-ported the Seraphic Sisters and the homeless shelter that is run by them. Granting him the title of Honorary Citizen of Oświęcim was the culmina-tion of his years of work. Al-though he was awarded the highest state honors, this honor was most important to him because Oświęcim was closest for him.

The last eight years of work on the Board of the IYMC were for all of us an excel-lent time of intensive meet-ings and cooperation with Janek. Like nobody else, he was able to combine the high expectations of him-self and his colleagues with kindness, openness, and a willingness to help. Due to the inherent elegance in his manner, especially towards women, and the smile that inevitably accompanied him, respect and sympathy always surrounded him. For us, those working here, it was important that he felt welcome at the Center—among friends, and his en-thusiasm was shared with all of us.

Janek, we will greatly miss you.

Leszek Szuster

This year’s Action Reconciliation for Peace summer camp was held for the fi rst time at the IYMC. From Au-gust 16 to 29 young people from Poland, Germany, and the Ukraine met. Verena Bunkus and Nina Rabuza, ASF volunteers in 2005/2006 in Oświęcim, as well as Anna Meier, who permanently works at the IYMC, led

the camp. A participant from Germany, Maj-Britt Klenk, describes the meeting.

The sky is blue in Ausch-witz. Blue just as in any other place. There is little evidence that it is near the former Auschwitz-Birke-nau Concentration Camp. Our group, consisting of young Polish, German, and Ukrainian people came to Oświęcim for a two-week visit to consider the prob-lems of Auschwitz and the entire region of Galicia.At this time, we performed cleanup work at the Jew-ish cemetery. We found it neglected because the city no longer has the Jewish community, which would be responsible for it. Our work consisted primar-ily of trimming hedges and cleaned the paths. The crowning achievement of our work was planting trees that symbolize our commemoration of those buried there.

We overcame language bar-riers and learned new words in foreign languages. The home cooking at the IYMC conquered our hearts and stomachs, as did the tra-ditional Polish ‘milk bars’ (which, despite the name, do not serve milk-based dishes).While visiting Polish cities, such as Tarnów and Bielsko-Biała, we remained silent together while visiting Jew-ish cemeteries and learning the diffi cult history of these places.Joy and sorrow are inter-twined with each other, but one cannot exist without the other. We learned this bit-ter truth while at the IYMC, where we often had to deal with the subject of death. A daily evaluation helped to work out our diffi cult emo-tions and gave the opportu-nity to look at history from a different perspective.

A visit to Auschwitz-Birke-nau made us feel helpless in the face of what a person can do to cause harm to another person. Meetings with sur-vivors of the Holocaust, Ka-zimierz Smoleń and Alfred Schreier, showed us that life after the Shoah is possible. The feeling is reinforced by our visit to the Jewish Com-munity in Bielsko-Biała, where the modern life of Polish Jews was presented. Thanks to the efforts of Pol-ish participants, we had the opportunity to get to know Polish culture in a way that is not possible without a direct meeting.Never again—this is the knowledge that we acquired and which will stay within us. Each of us will gladly take part in future such camps.

Verena Bunkus, Maj-Britt KlenkeTranslated from German:

Luiza Kończyk, Elżbieta Kocyba

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SUMMER CAMP IN OŚWIĘCIM: GALICIA, YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Participants of the summer camp Action Reconciliation For Peace

September 4 in the parish cemetery in Oświęcim, following a solemn Mass at the St. Mary’s Church, we said goodbye to Jan Knycz. The funeral procession of the mourning Oświęcim citizens walked to the fi nal resting place of the Honorary Citizen of their city.

FOR THE TOWN, FOR THE YOUTH CENTER.SAYING GOODBYE TO JAN KNYCZ

Jan Knycz with Henryk Mandelbaum and Dr. Thomas Glässer, former Consul General of of Germany in Cracow

Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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International Youth Meeting Center

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From September 2009 to August 2010, Daria Varyvod from the Ukraine, served as a volunteer at the Interna-tional Youth Meeting Center—a volunteer for Action Reconciliation Service for Peace. Below are her thoughts and refl ections about her stay in Oświęcim.

I was born in Kharkov, the Ukraine, on the 70th anniver-sary of the October Revolu-tion, November 7, 1987. My parents were students then. They got a job in the city of Severodonetsk and quickly moved there. In Severodo-netsk I attended primary school, and after 11 years, also graduated from high school there. I was then 17 years old. I went to another city to attend college; I passed the exams and became a student of the Horlivski Pedagogi-cal State Higher Vocational School. I was studying philol-ogy of Slavic and Germanic languages. After four years, I graduated in the Ukrainian and Russian languages, and with my teaching diploma I am qualifi ed, just as the stu-dents of the Polish language in Poland, to teach both the language and literature.I came to Oświęcim in Sep-tember 2009 to take part in the Action Reconciliation Service

for Peace volunteer program at the IYMC. My main task at the Meeting Center was to take care of the study groups from different countries car-rying out programs in IYMC. I participated in the summary discussions, and in the case of selected groups, in the whole seminar process. During my time as a volunteer, I partici-pated in, among others, the Polish-German artistic semi-nar entitled “Comic 2010,” carried out by my supervisor Anna Meier, in cooperation with the Warsaw Rising Mu-seum. An important event in my volunteering life was to attend the 65th anniversary commemoration of the libera-tion of Auschwitz.At the end of my stay in Oświęcim, I took part in Ukrainian-Polish-German summer camp, which also dealt with the history of Galicia. During the camp we visited the site of Auschwitz together, performed cleanup

work at the Jewish cemetery in Oświęcim, learned about the culture and customs of the countries from which partici-pants came from, and at the same time we also extended our existing knowledge. My everyday tasks included be-ing responsible for the state of the IYMC library. When I was not taking care of a group, I kept track of the number and condition of the books in the library, listed donations and new copies into the electronic directory. Also, I helped with translations between English-Polish-Russian.Why did I come to Oświęcim?I have always enjoyed history and wanted to see fi rsthand the site of the former Ausch-witz-Birkenau concentration and death camp. We learned a lot about this in school. To this day, the name Auschwitz still terrifi es people in the Ukraine.I wanted to understand how to live in a place where some-

thing truly horrible had taken place. How people live every day next to the former camp. What do they think of it? Do they remember their history? I thought that when I come here, then I would better un-derstand why these events took place and what to do so that they never happen again. These thoughts bounced around in my head back then. But these were only some of the questions that I asked my-self.I also thought: Poland has been in the European Union for 5 years. What has changed in that time? Do Poles live much better than we do? What do they think of the communist times and do they want them to return? After all, Poland is our neighbor, but I know so little about it. In the Ukraine there is a stereo-type that Poles are very proud people, aloof, like the nobles. This is the picture we have of them from history and from classical literature. It is also widely believed that there is a tendency to dislike the neigh-bor from the East. Germans do not like the Poles, the Poles—the Ukrainians, the Ukrainians—the Russians, and the Russians—Asians. The farther east, the farther it is from some kind of “center.” Nobody really knows where the mythical “center” lies, but everyone wants to be in this “center,” or at least close to it. It is known that the “center” lies far from the province—in the most negative sense of the word: poverty, underdevel-opment, the lack of democ-racy, or even barbarism.What do Poles really know about people in the Ukraine? The UPA, [Stepan] Bandera, the Orange Revolution, and the Lviv nationalists. How-ever, I live so far from Lviv and I have not been there even once. I thought that until I learn to speak Polish well, I would speak Russian. Because older people learned Russian in school, I would be fi ne. I was afraid that they would not like me, if I speak Russian, because they do not like Russians.These thoughts bounced around my head, because I did not have any other in-formation. It is an almost three-day journey from the city where I live to the Eu-ropean Union border that’s almost like a wall and is very diffi cult to get through. But also I hoped it would not be

so bad, because the Poles are also Slavic souls, but from the West. I wondered how much had changed since joining the European Union; were there big differences between the generations?Of course, after the arrival in Poland, I quickly forgot about all my concerns. Not once did I have any problems because of the fact that I am a Ukrainian. On the contrary, sometimes it seems to me that people like me just because I am from the Ukraine. I quick-ly learned to speak Polish, because it is very similar to Ukrainian. I have always had good contact with people, so I quickly found friends in Oświęcim.I got an interesting job with very intelligent and nice peo-ple. Each of us knows at least one foreign language well. They are educated, open-minded and have a lot of knowledge on various topics. I tried not to feel embarrassed and not to be too jealous, but rather to take advantage of their potential for my own development. I learn quickly, so I tried to reach the level of my colleagues. I hope I have succeeded.At work, I met interesting people. This included the former concentration camp prisoners. Their experiences are remarkable to me. Con-versations with them helped me understand the value of human life. I am proud that I had the opportunity to talk to them and pass on this in-formation further, that I can come home and say that I heard this from a witness to the events, rather than having read it in a history book.Oświęcim charmed me. It is very beautiful and has a cas-tle. I like Oświęcim. It is such a quiet, peaceful town. It is very green, full of wonderful people.I really like Poland. This is an extremely beautiful country with an interesting and tragic history. I see the rapid devel-opment here and a society full of stability. To me, life here seems to be more dynamic; people now have many dif-ferent possibilities. I feel happy here, although I miss my home very much. I cannot decide on the full value of this life that I experienced here. It was worth coming here to see everything for myself.

Daria Varyvod

SUCH A PEACEFUL, QUIET TOWN

Daria Varyvod

Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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Joanna Klęczar: This year marks twenty years of volunteering for young people from Volkswagen’s vocation-al schools, who come to Oświęcim to learn about the history and to work on the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau. They are ac-companied by vocation-al school students from Bielsko-Biala, Bieruń, and Polkowice. How did this idea come about?

Christoph Heubner: The idea of students doing work at the Memorial evolved as a result of a process. Initially, the stu-dents of the Volkswa-gen came to participate in seminars. Only with time they realized what the Memorial Site really means to them. They re-alized that this place is not only a place to learn, but also a place for com-passion. All the while the condition of the build-ings and areas of the Mu-seum were undergoing rapid deterioration. Be-cause of this situation, the

students themselves said: we want to help maintain this site, we want to work here. The proposal was favorably received by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Mu-seum, and today twenty years of actual work by young German volun-teers, assisted by Mu-seum staff, have passed. Of course, the work of a symbolic dimension but it is also a real and benefi -cial form of assistance.

J.K.: Who comes to work at the Museum? Are these volunteers, or is this obligatory for all students at the VW schools?

Ch.H.: Every year four groups of students come to Oświęcim for two weeks. Those who have been here, share their experiences and impres-sions after they return from their visit to the Memorial Site as well as the International Youth Meeting Center. They talk about their meet-ings with former pris-

oners of Auschwitz. So, this means that each year there are more willing participants than places available.

J.K.: What kind of work do the students do at the Memorial Site?

Ch.H.: For many years, they focused on uncov-ering the roads in Birke-nau. The former camp was one big green space and it was actually dif-fi cult to discern its lay-out—the actual struc-ture of the camp. Roads, which were a part of it, were not visible and it was diffi cult to even un-derstand how the camp was organized. That is why this was such an im-portant task. Currently, the young people are involved in conserving the old roof tiles. It is also vital to preserve the vast quantities of shoes and their remains. Emotion-ally, this is a very diffi -cult job because holding a shoe in their hand—es-pecially a child’s shoe—

makes a person begin to think about what hap-pened here, a memento of which person you hold in your hand. And what does this shoe mean? The shoe is a person, an individual story of a par-ticular human being. The Museum staff decides what kind of work the youth do. Whatever its nature, it is always done with great willingness and commitment.

J.K.: Who supervises the work?

Ch.H.: The work the vol-unteers do is supervised by staff members of the Preservation Depart-ment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, who are well prepared for their tasks and eager to share their knowledge with the youth. Students learn quite a lot about the work, history, as well as details of individual buildings. Watching the Museum staff, the stu-dents can see how com-mitted they are to their work. To them it is not just a professional obli-gation, but rather a way to bear witness. And, of course, that is one of the basic things—if you manage such a signifi -cant place like Ausch-witz-Birkenau, you need a team of people who are truly interested in this topic and who do not only come “to work,” but “enter” history. Director Piotr Cywiński is great at motivating his employ-ees in creative activity to preserve the Memorial Site for future genera-tions.

J.K.: This is a specifi c kind of mission…

Ch.H.: Yes, this is a mis-sion.

J.K.: You already have a certain perspective in observing these young people, you know their feelings related to work-ing at the Museum. I know that they are well prepared to come to Oświęcim—or rather—to Auschwitz, they know what to expect here, but do you think that what they see with their own eyes, what they experi-ence, changes them?

Ch.H.: Well, Auschwitz is always a place where one fi nds meaning. We can always try to run away from it, but there is no way to escape it when you fi nd yourself in the very center of this experi-ence. Visiting the Memo-rial is in some way, the road to yourself, because you are asked about what happened here, you alone must deter-mine your feelings about what you have seen and what you have learned. When creation of the In-ternational Youth Meet-ing Center in Oświęcim was planned, people in Germany, government representatives—not all, of course, but many—smiled and said, “Well, Auschwitz in 25, 30 years will not be so interesting anymore, it will become a distant history chapter for young people who will move their focus to other, more current topics of the past.” But—what I consider one of the most evocative experiences of my life—it turned out that this is simply non-sense. Young people are confronted with the vast-ness of Birkenau, count-less facts, and human his-tory; they feel very close to this particular moment in history. This does not change at all. Speaking from the perspective of the writer: looking at the great questions of human existence, such as love, death, genocide, depravi-ty—it never really chang-es if you have the ability to empathize. It is crucial to the full and conscious experience of this place and becomes an impor-tant point of develop-ment of their empathy in terms of the past, present, and future.

J.K.: Do you think that after seventy years it is more diffi cult for Ger-man youth than those from other countries to visit the Memorial? Can they feel the same way as the young Russians, Poles, and those from France?

Ch.H.: They feel the same, but the differences still exist. None of the survivors ever imposed any sense of guilt on

An interview with Christioph Heubner, Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Vice Chair-man of the Foundation for International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim.

BUILDING TIES

Christoph Heubner

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young Germans. No one ever demanded from me a sense of guilt, nor even that I should feel bad. Never. But the dif-ferences do exist and you must be extremely naïve not to see them. It was a crime committed by the German state—not the Polish, the Russian, but the German. The Ger-man language was the language of the murder-ers. Not all Germans were murderers, but the factories of death were organized by the German state.

J.K.: Your work in the Foundation for Interna-tional Youth Meeting Center is closely linked to your activities in the framework of the In-ternational Auschwitz Committee.

Ch.H.: Oświęcim is a town. Auschwitz is a place. The survivors of Auschwitz carry it within themselves; it is pres-ent everywhere where they are. They take the memory of this place with them to Singapore, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, or Berlin—wherever they live today. In their ad-vanced age, these memo-ries become increasingly closer for them. They have more time to think, to summarize, which brings the past closer. They are very interested in Auschwitz, because it still remains the central moment of their lives. It always was and will continue until the end. We have witnessed many of the survivors return to the former camp, and although it is hard to describe, it was always the return to the turn-ing point in their lives, which is still dominant to this day. Survivors want Auschwitz-Birkenau to be a Memorial Site for future generations. They want their story, and that of those who were murdered here, to be told. This is extremely important to them. They want new generations to learn about it, and not to overwhelm them, but to take the knowledge gained here and drawn conclusions for their present and future. These stories form a bond be-tween their memories, emotions, and feelings of young people. A bond that young people can clearly feel.

J.K.: What are your per-sonal experiences re-lated to working on the

subject of Auschwitz, including the Interna-tional Auschwitz Com-mittee? What about this topic made you get so involved?

Ch.H.: Well, because it concerns human be-ings. Because of people like Tadeusz Szymański, Kazimierz Smoleń, Al-fred Przybylski, Noah and Dorota Flug, Marian Turski, Kazimierz Albin, August Kowalczyk, and many others who have awakened the best that is within us. They only wanted empathy, no ac-tive participation or blind solidarity, but emotional involvement. And that involvement was born. I have shared many of the stories I have heard with young people, and I was a kind of a link connect-ing the fate of these two generations. Tadeusz Szymański for example, told me that when he was a prisoner he did not know what the inverted letter “B” in the inscrip-tion “Arbeit macht frei” meant. Only in a few years after the liberation, the survivors explained to him that this was done on purpose. The initia-tive of young people who wanted to do something to demonstrate their inde-pendence, to mark their presence. Szymański told me that when the prison-ers had done this, they began to fear what would happen if the guards fi nd out about this. But they soon realized that they never look up, confi dent of their dominance—in-deed—they never looked up.

J.K.: You call yourself a link between former prisoners and the con-temporary young peo-ple. You raised the issue that seems to be very im-portant today. As time passes, fewer and fewer witnesses of history re-main. “Links” similar to you will be needed in the future, due to the constant change of gen-erations. How, in your opinion, will institu-tions operate such as the International Auschwitz Committee, the Inter-national Youth Meeting Center and, above all, the Memorial Site, when there are no witnesses to those events?

Ch.H.: Well, we will have to expand our perspec-tive. We will say goodbye to the survivors, thank them, and enter a period of mourning. We will

certainly be left alone, but on the other hand, we will have to expand our perspective. The generation that worked with survivors, including Krystyna Oleksy, Teresa and Henryk Świebocki, and many others, came to know so many wit-nesses, and not only from the time of the camp, but also from later years. The story has to be told: what did the creation of the exhibition looked like, what had happened in the 1960s and 70s—in relation to the political and social situation in Poland and the world. Finally, Auschwitz is and will remain not only the Polish place; this place belongs to the whole world, and stands as a turning point in its de-velopment. Further top-ics include Polish-Jewish relations, relations with Israel. Our duty is to tell all of these stories. I’m sure there will be people asking about the devel-opment of the Memo-rial Site, how the Inter-national Youth Meeting Center was created, and for what purpose? The Meeting Center is the result of a process. Here are former prisoners of concentration camps, motivating a new gen-eration, as in the case of Volker von Törne—and, indeed, what symbol-ism—the son of an SS of-fi cer, took part in the cre-ation of the International Youth Meeting Center. This is just an example, and yet there are many equally remarkable sto-ries. So we must extend our perspective and stop worrying that the inter-est of the world or the testimony of Auschwitz will disappear with the departure of the last wit-nesses of history. There

will be people who will ask questions and there will have to be people to provide the answers, responses regarding the historical, personal, and political background.

J.K.: Could you tell us

about the “To Be Re-membered” award statuette created by the International Auschwitz Committee?

Ch.H.: We wanted to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the lib-eration of Auschwitz in a special way. Mi-chele Deodat of France, a friend of Auschwitz Committee, had an idea: after all, the letter “B” on the inscription “Arbeit macht frei” is already a symbol. Maybe we should use this image? Then we asked the fi ne artist to give form to our idea and in this way we jointly created this award. This is a kind of “message in a bottle.” We give it as a message from the survivors. It is asking for empathy, a memory, which is why we poeti-cally call it a “Gift of Re-membrance.” Only hu-mans have the ability to remember. And although it is not diffi cult, it is not always pleasant but necessary. The statuette was presented to Ger-man Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of Israel Shimon Perez dur-ing his visit to Berlin on January 27 this year. We also gave it to Kofi Anan, who along with his wife, Nana, was always very interested in the lives and activities of the survi-vors, as well as the opera-tion of the Memorial Site and the IYMC. This “B” is in every sense a special link with the world. Not long ago, we could see

the reaction to the theft of the sign from Auschwitz. There are places that you simply do not steal from; if it happens, nothing will ever be as it was before. People stop for a moment and wonder what is hap-pening with the world, that the inscription “Ar-beit macht frei” is stolen?

J.K.: Whom else does the IAC plan to award the statuette?

Ch.H.: Of course, one of those individuals who should be awarded is Władysław Bartoszewski who has done so much for the Memorial Site, the survivors, and in the fi eld of Polish-Jewish and Polish-German relations. He is a great gift for the Polish nation, a gift for Europe—he is simply re-markable.

J.K.: Can we again re-turn to Angela Merkel? What was her reaction after receiving this par-ticular recognition?

Ch.H.: To Angela Merkel we went with a group of young people from Volk-swagen, to commemo-rate the 20th anniversary of the volunteer work at the Memorial Site. We were accompanied by a group of survivors from Germany and Israel, as well as several politi-cians. Angela Merkel was very pleased, quick-ly realizing the enormous importance of the statu-ette as a link between the survivors and young people. It should be not-ed that the statuette was made by young people from Volkswagen, which is also very signifi cant.

Translated from German by: Ilona Stanek

Statuette “To Be Remembered”

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Jewish Center

Before the summer holiday the midpoint in the latest anti-discrimination program had passed, aimed at teachers and secondary school students from Małopolska and Śląsk, en-

titled “Why Do We Need Tolerance?” We encourage you to read the report on the work that has been done up to now.

Political correctness is a use-less idea created by oversensi-tive people. I’ve got enough of your tolerance. Homosexuals are sick and nobody can con-vince me otherwise. Jews love money, so it was, and will be, moreover, what’s wrong with that anyway? I don’t have anything against the Roma, but I do not want to have them as neighbors. A black will al-ways be a black, etc., etc.These and other, often more blunt, expressions can eas-ily be “picked up” on the street, on the bus, or at a family party. This is obvi-ously not exclusively a Pol-ish problem with accepting “otherness” that all societ-ies have, but it has vary-ing degrees. This is the fi rst problem.Secondly, the past century, full of terrible mass crimes, provided much material for refl ection on human nature and the impact that our behavior has on the position of others. Famous psychological experiments carried out after World War II showed an innate human tendency to succumb to au-thority, conformity to their own group and perform atrocities against people re-garded as different or less valuable.What connects these two threads? Teaching about genocide is divided into the eight stages of this process, the fi rst two are the classi-

fi cation, to split people into groups, and symbolism, which means assigning symbols to people belong-ing to groups other than ours. If a symbol assigned is negative, then third phase begins, which is dehuman-ization. People who have had the opportunity to visit the Auschwitz site should be especially sensitive to this word, and the terrible consequences that it entails, in the worse treatment of another human being.Based on this assumption we consider, together with young and adult Poles, how we can prevent such behavior, how our attitude matters to other people, and what we can do as individuals in opposing anti-Semitism, racism, ho-mophobia, and other preju-dices. The program “Why Do We Need Tolerance?” that started in January 2010, is directed at students and high school pupils from Małopolska and Śląsk who visit the Auschwitz-Birke-nau State Museum, as well as their teachers.For teachers we have a weekend of anti-discrimi-nation education seminars conducted by Prof. Barbara Weigl of the School of So-cial Psychology in Warsaw. Participants of the seminars broaden their knowledge of stereotypes, prejudice, as well as discrimination,

and learn practical meth-ods of teaching tolerance in schools. Since the be-ginning of the year there have been four seminars that were attended by 60 people. Following the sum-mer we are planning two more meetings for another 30 teachers. All graduates stress the unique character of classes, which for many people were the fi rst op-portunity to acquire skills for teaching tolerance and multiculturalism.The workshops held a fi lm screening for students of an American anti-discrim-ination fi lm called “Blue Eyed,” which shows the problem of discrimination faced by blacks in the 1990s. Using the fi lm as a basis, there is a discussion of the universal mechanisms of how we perceive and treat each other, and how this functions in school and be-yond. Together, we come to conclusions about the role of the individual in ad-dressing intolerance. Con-trary to popular belief the youth is very active and they have their own obser-vations on the use of labels and unequal treatment. Ac-cording to their statements, the majority of the partici-pants, the meetings at the Jewish Center in Oświęcim were the fi rst opportunity for serious talks on the sub-ject of tolerance and the

beginning of refl ection on their own behavior.Our pride and joy is a spe-cial series of workshops for pupils and students from the district of Oświęcim: “Pioneers of Tolerance.” This selected group of young people met every month to talk about toler-ance and multiculturalism and to learn through meet-ings with people belong-ing to minorities in Poland. Before the summer the Pio-neers living in Poland, met Azat, an Armenian student, and Nitzan who is Jew-ish, as well as Muslim high school students: Amina, Agatha, and Asma. The young guests were show-ered with a hail of ques-tions about the easy and diffi cult aspects of life in our country, cultural differ-ences and similarities, and daily school affairs. After the summer and the cycle will continue.It is impossible not to men-tion the special workshop of the “Why Do We Need Tolerance?” program, which took place just be-fore the summer holidays. Fifteen offi cers of the State and Municipal Police from the Oświęcim area took part in an intensive two-day anti-discrimination training of educators led by the Jewish Center in Oświęcim. Classes were to be interactive, based on the method of learning through experience and working in groups. Case studies and discussions about discrimi-nation on the response of law enforcement offi cials to racism and intolerance,

allowed for the compari-son of the theory of social psychology to the actual working conditions of the State and Municipal Po-lice. Emboldened by new knowledge and experience, graduates of the training returned to service ready for even better performance of their duties to defend the weak.After the summer we will continue the “Why Do We Need Tolerance?” pro-gram, which is scheduled for completion in Decem-ber 2010. There will be more seminars for teachers, workshops for students, and classes for “Pioneers of Tolerance.” We want as many people as possible to take this opportunity and refl ect on this contem-porary message stemming from the tragic experience of Auschwitz and fi nd a positive message about hu-man potential, to get rid of the negative prejudices, and make a commitment to mutual understanding. We encourage you to keep track of news on a special website: www.poconamtol-erancja.pl.

Maciek Zabierowski

The project “Why Do We Need Tolerance?” is imple-mented with support from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway from the resources of Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and Norwegian Financial Mecha-nism, as well as from the bud-get of the Republic of Poland under the NGO Fund.

MY APPROACH TO OTHERS AND THE HOLOCAUST

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Participants of the project “Why Do We Need Tolerance?”

Participants of the project “Why Do We Need Tolerance?”

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From August 10 to 15, 2010, at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim, the Maximilian Kolbe Stif-tung of Germany organized the fi rst European workshop. Taking part were 27 individuals from Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slovenia, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Ukraine, Germany, and Poland.

BULIDING RESPONSIBILITY FOR TOMORROW WHILE NOT AVOIDING

RESPONSIBILITY FOR YESTERDAY

Participants represented organizations such as the Commission Justitia et PAX, Renovabis, Caritas, PAX Christi, the Ties Labo-ratory, Memorial Site in Dachau, and Greek-Cath-olic Church. Each taking different forms of account-ability are involved in the peace process in Europe. Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg and the Bishop of Tarnów, Wiktor Skworc, responsible for the Polish Bishops Conference Com-mission for Relations with the German Episcopate, joined the workshops.The meeting was very in-tense. It began with a lec-ture by Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Mu-seum, Dr. Piotr Cywiński. The topic of the lecture was “The memory of Auschwitz as a European task.” Direc-tor Cywiński said that this topic brought about in such a way is more of a conclu-sion than the start of the discussion. Fragments of the lecture are published here and on the following page.Director Cywiński’s at-tendance throughout the seminar served as a refer-ence to this subject. On the second day, the participants visited the former Ausch-witz-Birkenau concentra-tion camp. The next day

there was a meeting with former prisoners—Ignacy Krasnokucki, who survived the Łódź ghetto, Kazimi-erz Smoleń, and Wilhelm Brasse. We heard a lecture by Prof. Jacek Bomba of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow on PTSD, namely Post Traumatic Stress Dis-order. Prof. Bomba said that the group of researchers led by Prof. Kępiński, and working on the experiences of survivors immediately after the war, stressed the fact that a good childhood affects the learned ways for survival. “The richness of a good childhood,” which instills into a person such skills that allow them to sur-vive, as it turned out, plays a great role.The next day was devoted to refl ection on this history as a challenge for any na-tion. We visited the town of Oświęcim, which has been struggling with its history, and we had a unique op-portunity to visit the Pres-ervations Department of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, where To-masz Sawoszczuk told us about diffi culties in con-serving items. We also saw the national exhibi-tions at the Auschwitz Mu-seum, through which we were guided by Mirosław

A “Memorial Site” is some-thing diffi cult to defi ne. This phrase is an expression that was popularized after World War II. This is most likely due to the fact that there was a lack of words in speaking about the places where such things hap-pened. In describing a place such as Auschwitz, there is a lack of words. The words were created in relation to the normal world and quite often have nothing to do with the reality of Ausch-witz. In our everyday life, we grapple with the lack of words to describe and name the things that had happened here.

Auschwitz was called dif-ferently: some have called this place “the world’s larg-est cemetery,” but this only partially refl ects reality, be-cause we must remember the deceased are brought to the cemetery, so that we can commemorate them, however, living people were brought to Ausch-witz. Another term used is “a place of murder.” This phrase seems to me to be so macabre, that using it in daily life is not appropriate. Today, Auschwitz is also a cultural institution—a mu-

seum. It may seem that this word does not quite match reality, but its advantage is the inclusion of a certain institutional framework, making it easier to care for the site. This also allows for the safe lending of objects to other museums abroad. The name “museum” is quite often criticized, but it just gives this place le-gal security. Undoubt-edly, Auschwitz is a place of world heritage and it is worth considering what the world heritage is.

After the war there was a long-lasting debate, in which mainly prisoners took part. The debate con-cerned the preservation of what remained of the camp. The huge Auschwitz complex consisted of three main camps and over 40 sub-camps. The Germans left a chemical plant in Oświęcim and many other buildings—both military installations and civilian buildings. It was decided that two parts of the entire complex would be kept as memorial sites: the main camp, Auschwitz I, along with several adjacent build-ings, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It was a remark-

able decision, because in a sense, it was minimalist, but on the other hand, it refl ects the whole history, because these sites show both a concentration camp as well as the extermination center. These two parts are supposed to tell us about history and much more. In literature and popular cul-ture, Auschwitz-Birkenau camp has begun to function as a kind of pars pro toto, as a symbol of the whole. Thus, this space must also speak about other, similar things. This creates many problems, because the his-tory differed and you can-not tell it in a synthetic way, by using only one example. When it comes to the other sites associated with the former camp, discussions on this topic continue to this day. The shape of this “memory” is part of an on-going debate.

You could say that in Auschwitz you touch the epicenter of the formation of a new Europe. The War and places such as Ausch-witz destroyed the dimen-sion of the European com-munity. After those events, there was a need to create a new system that could not

FRAGMENTS OF THE LECTURE BY DR. PIOTR M.A. CYWIŃSKI

Ignacy Krasnokucki

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Center for Dialogue and Prayer FoundationOś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation

Obstarczyk who provided comprehensive answers to the many questions from participants. This gave us the opportunity to speak about individual memories, which do not form a single story, and are sometimes even contradictory. We also heard lectures on Pol-ish, Ukrainian, and German memories of the War.For the Polish participants, the German side’s suffer-ings were missing, which included 14 million Ger-mans who were expelled. In a statement published on the 70th anniversary of the beginning of World War II, the two chairmen of the Polish and German Episco-pates, Dr. Archbishop Józef Michalik and Dr. Robert Zollitscha, state that the effects of Nazi aggression were also widely experi-enced by many Germans, who suffered as they fl ed and became displaced per-sons. German and Polish Bishops jointly condemn war crimes: “We are also unanimous in the condem-nation of the expulsions, not forgetting the internal

reasons and their aftermath. … In this spirit, the criminal war of aggression by Nazi Germany, and the enormi-ty of the wrongs that were infl icted as a consequence on Poles by the Germans, as well as the wrongs that were endured by Germans through displacement and loss of their homeland, we repeat together: We forgive and ask for forgiveness.”A guest for the third day of the workshops was the archbishop of Bamberg, Dr. Ludwig Schick, one of the signatories of the declara-tion of 2009, which dealt with the role of the Church in overcoming the wounds of the past and how the church can help build peace on earth. He presented nine theses regarding the role of the Church in the process of healing wounds. The most important conclusions related to the Church con-fronting a painful history, based on facts, meaning the truth. Reconciliation, ac-cording to the Archbishop, needs to address the facts and results of violence, be-cause the Church is a real-

ist, not a utopian. Violence affects victims and per-petrators. Not redressing injustice can contribute to the “dynamics of violence,” when it is diffi cult to dis-tinguish between victims and perpetrators. The his-

tory of violence, which is not yet settled, can explode at a certain point. The role and task of the Church is therefore specifi cally to take up the issue of the victims and history of violence. The Church teaches that over-coming violence takes time and peace. So the church can create a space for spiri-tual refl ection, because the issue of peace requires a longer perspective. With-out repentance and repair through practical solidar-ity with the victims there is no visible change. Victims await talks and recognition of guilt by the perpetrators and an apology, repairs, and material assistance. The Archbishop pointed out the role of organizations such as Caritas, which may be help-ful in repairing the wrongs in the form of material help and solidarity with the vic-tims. The Church must it-self learn to bear responsi-bility for the conduct of its members and local church-es can be a good conduit in this task. The prospect of solidarity with the victims is of paramount importance to its credibility. There is a need to recognize its own sins and fi x them by remov-ing the effects of physical and mental violence.The Archbishop himself has often stressed his sat-isfaction about rectifying the wrongs against forced laborers during World War II, especially those who worked within the Church, because he is involved in the process of compensation. The Archbishop recalled the speeches at the end of the biblical parable about the returning son, which must be constantly reminded of in the Church. The church must be an advocate, which speaks about the suffer-ing of victims. “The faith

of our Church has to say that violence and sin do not have the last word, and the foundation of reconciliation should be the message of the Bible and this history of the church,” he concluded. A guest of the meeting was also Bishop Wiktor Skworc of the Tarnów Diocese and the Chairman of the Com-mittee on Relations with the Conference of German Bishops, who said that the church is just a WORD against violence, but this is the word of God. And a word can change reality.On Saturday, August 14, participants took part in a Holy Mass at the former Auschwitz I concentra-tion camp commemorat-ing the 69th anniversary of the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe. In the words ad-dressed to those gathered, Archbishop Schick stressed his gratitude for the invi-tation to the meeting. He recalled his meeting with Cardinal Karol Wojtyła and the Polish Primate, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński in Fulda in 1978, two weeks before the election of Karol Wojtyła to the papacy. At that time, the Cardinals from Poland brought the relics of St. Maximilian to the meeting, who, as the archbishop said, through his martyrdom has prepared for us a better fu-ture.Participants at the meeting stressed the richness and diversity of the workshops. According to one of the par-ticipants, it was not possible to fi nd a single solution for a reconciliation, but it was possible to fi nd distinction in the perception of differ-ences. For everyone, learn-ing about the national per-spective was enriching and it was an incentive for fur-ther work. The organizers conclude that it is important

only recreate the dimension of this community, but to protect Europe from such tragic events. Sometimes I speak to high school stu-dents and tell them that se-curity and peace are based on interdependence. We are safe as long as we de-pend on each other. It dis-courages us to argue. This is understandable and ob-vious for everyone. When I say that four generations ago security was being built in balancing of the security forces, the young people wonder how someone could have come up with something like that. A year ago, I approached a group from South Korea and asked why they had come here. One man replied that this was a company trip. The group was visit-ing the important places in Europe and also wanted to see Auschwitz. I asked why they wanted to see this place. He replied—in poor English, but still very clear—”I wanted to under-stand Europe.”

One may wonder whether memory should be based on only the place? I am convinced that the place is evocative, meaning that this place has something to tell us. There are also peo-ple who claim that after the books by Primo Levi and the other former prisoners, the place has nothing to offer. It is enough to read the books, since they con-tain a wealth of informa-

tion about the experiences and torments. I think that the narratives of survivors and “the place” are comple-mentary. The narrative of survivors is something that captures the imagination. Knowledge of “the place” can anchor the imagination in reality. “The place” will always be important in rela-tion to the fi lms and books. Here the testimonies of survivors are made realis-tic. Germany, building this camp, had not planned for it to survive all these years. We have here, especially in the case of Birkenau, a very primitive place. The bar-racks were not built by pro-fessionals, but by emaciated prisoners. Today the need for conservation is enor-mous, but there is a lack in knowledge. It turns out that we know how to preserve Egyptian mummies, as well as old cathedrals and sculp-tures, but tests have not yet been done on how to pre-serve objects and materials from the fi rst half of the twentieth century.

Memorial sites require ex-hibitions, because the site, itself, does not say every-thing that happened in Auschwitz. Our exhibit is one of the oldest such exhi-bitions in the world. It was created in 1955, and with only minor modifi cations, it operates to this day. In a sense, it has become the “mother” of other exhibi-tions. This year we decided to change it and this is not

an easy task, because for-mer prisoners created the current narrative. Here, cer-tain symbols were created and we should be very care-ful not to lose the link with other exhibits. What will the new exhibition show? We want to show the con-scious creation and expan-sion of the evil machine. This is something that is not shown anywhere. For-mer prisoners have created an exhibit showing only the fate of the victims. In principle, the faces of the SS men do not appear. The reason for this is simple: the former prisoners did not want to look at their faces. We will also show the com-plex world of the prisoners and of course the Holocaust itself.

In one year, 1.3 million peo-ple visit the Auschwitz Me-morial. If we would include other places of a similar na-ture, not only in Europe, we could add about 10 million people. People who come here are very moved and often cry. But when some-thing wrong is happening in the world, something of a genocidal nature, the voice of those 10 million people cannot be heard. This shows that our education is a sys-tem, which does not function properly. There is something wrong here, and in creating a new exhibition we have this in mind. In my opinion, this is the major challenge of modern education.

Compiled by: Paweł Sawicki

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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation

August 9 is the day on which we remember Edith Stein—in the Catholic Church known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. This year marks the 68th anniversary of her death.

68TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATING THE DEATH OF EDITH STEIN

—ST. TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS

Prayer for the victims

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to ask questions about the experience of Auschwitz, and not about the fi nal per-ception, with which we will leave. Now everyone must begin to live with what they have experienced.The seminar was orga-nized by the Maximilian Kolbe Stiftung of Germany, which grew out of Maximil-ian Kolbe Werk that was formed in 1973 to help for-

mer prisoners of the con-centration camps. The task of the new foundation is building bridges between peoples and seeking ar-eas of contemporary in-volvement and in creating ties that were severed by Auschwitz.The Foundation supports the work of the Churches in Europe that work toward reconciliation, in order to

use the experience of the Church in this area. Ac-cording to Jörg Luer, an or-ganizer from the Maximil-ian Kolbe Stiftung, this is a task that cannot be achieved without knowing the con-text of twentieth-century Europe, in which Ausch-witz is central. The phe-nomenon of Auschwitz lies in the different memories about this place. Auschwitz

affects our identity, so we need to talk about it and try to understand. According to Jörg Luer, “We came here because we do not want to talk about an abstract event, but about something con-crete.” The purpose of this meeting was fi rst to get to know each other, listening to different sensitivities, and despite the loaded his-tory of Auschwitz, take up

the challenge of building a civilization of love and for-giveness. It was an attempt to understand Auschwitz and open a way for bet-ter understanding between peoples, as well as to take responsibility for our own work where we live.

Marta TitaniecParticipant of the Seminar

Like every year, the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, together with the Cracow Province of Discalced Car-melites organized the com-memoration of the Saint, who in August 1942 was brought to Auschwitz with her sister and murdered in the gas chambers at Birke-nau together with other Catholics of Jewish origin.

Father Dr. Wojciech Zyzak of the Pontifi cal University of Cracow, invited for this

occasion, reminded the as-sembled guests about the educational side of Edith Stein. In his lecture entitled “The role of faith in the life and writings of St. Te-resa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)” analyzed the importance of faith and its relationship to reason. He also spoke of, among others, St. Thomas Aquinas, whose philosophy Edith drew from, and Edmund Husserl with whom she often de-bated with during her life.

It showed that Edith Stein, “defended the participation of reason in the act of faith, while maintaining an invio-lable belief in the need for the revelation of mysteries, which reason would never be able to reach.”

In addition to the lecture, the gathered audience had the opportunity to see the exhi-bition “Signs of Memory,” which presented the vari-ous forms of commemorat-ing the murdered that are

left by visitors to Ausch-witz. The second part of the ceremony began at the monument in Birkenau with prayers for those murdered and for peace in the world. The prayer was led by Bish-op Tadeusz Rakoczy, and among those present were members of the Edith Stein Society of Germany, who spent their weekly retreat at Auschwitz along with her last, unfi nished text of the Saint: “Knowing the Holy Cross.” The day ended with

a Mass at the Oświęcim Car-melite Convent. Bishop Ra-koczy delivered the homily to those present. The bishop said that Edith Stein was “a woman who contemplated the face of God ... She was aware that the love of Christ is through suffering. He who truly loves does not stop at the prospect of the suffering of a loved one. Also, who has suffered more than Jesus Christ?”

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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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History

I would like to sincerely thank all of those readers who, in some way, let me know that they value my passion and take in-

terest in reading about my collection. Today I decided to describe the actual “Ganobis’s Cabinet,” which this column is named after.

In a container next to the eagle, there were 35 papers written mostly in pencil that contained, among others, information about the inhu-man conditions of life and work of Polish prisoners in Ravensbrück concentration camp as well as the names of women, on whom pseudo-medical experiments were carried out.Dr. Henryk Grabowski, a member of the medical team

in Neubrandenburg, who simultaneously ran a unit in the camp underground, that included among oth-ers, the continuing contact with the Ravensbrück camp prisoners, describes in post-War testimony the moment he hid the documents: “The weight of such a great mat-ter as the secure storage of documents describing Nazi crimes has created an ab-solute need to fi nd a safe place for them. I have been entrusted with this task. ... With packages hidden under my arm and a small shovel we headed towards

a small wooded hill. … At the top we came across a concrete pillar at the border, which seemed to be the best and most enduring marker. Dr. B. Markowski, Dr. L. Domański and Lieutenant P. Górski covered me from all sides and I used the noise of trains passing to dig half a meter deep pit at a distance of one meter to the east of the post.” With the help of Dr. Henryk Grabowski, in May 1975, the jar was exca-vated.In the jar, next to the eagle and priceless documents, was also a drawing by Maria

Hiszpańska made in the Ra-vensbrück camp, depicting women doing slave labor in the camp, as well as po-ems and letters of Ravens-brück prisoners. The notes from the excavation of 1975 stated: “The poems and writ-ings indicate a steadfast and unbreakable attitude of the prisoners, their strong inner bond with their homeland. This is also shown by the in-scription on the carved eagle ‘Poland has not perished’ in Polish.”

Agnieszka SieradzkaCollections Department

A-BSM

Born in October 22, 1902, into a working-class fam-ily in Strzemieszyce, the daughter of Karol Kłeczek and his wife, Konstancja, née Gestern. Her father, sought by the Russian authorities for belonging to a secret social-ist organization and working for independence as a mem-ber of the Polish Military Or-ganization, had to fl ee along with his family from the Dąbrowski Basin to Brzeszc-ze, where he began working in the coal mine. Helena’s mother took up sewing. Hel-ena attended public school in Brzeszcze, but her family had no money to support her fur-ther education. As the oldest child, she helped her mother with the sewing and looked after the younger children. Whe she turned sixteen, she worked for about a year as a ward helper in the Oświęcim hospital. Then, for one sea-son—from spring until the onset of winter—she took a job as a bricklayer/s helper. Around 1921, she married Kazimierz Płotnicki, a miner. Shortly after the wedding, her husband was drafted into army, and Helena continued to live with her mother and help her with the heavier work. She also enrolled at this time in the Workers’ University Society (TUR), which had just been opened by the Brzeszcze coal mine. She read a great deal, try-ing to make up for the gaps in her education. When her husband returned from the army, he went back to work in the coal mine. In 1932, she and her husband, along with their four children, moved into a house they had built in Przecieszyn. Helena devoted herself entirely to her fam-ily, which grew by two more children. She supplemented her husband’s modest wag-es by taking in sewing, and hoped that she would be able to provide her children with better circumstances than she herself had grown up in.Then came the occupation. Auschwitz Concentration Camp was established in 1940, and prisoner labor de-tails soon began appearing in Brzeszcze and the vicin-ity. The sight of them horri-fi ed Helena. From that mo-ment on, regardless of the

danger, she sneaked close to the camp every day and left food she had prepared in the places where the pris-oners labored. initially she did this spontaneously, pay-ing for everything out of her own slender resources. Later, she recruited a friend, Władysława Kożusznik of Przecieszyn, to help her. To-gether, they collected food from their neighbors. As time went on, however, they found in increasingly diffi -cult to come by a suffi cient amount of food for the grow-ing number of prisoners. The situation improved when she made contact with Wojciech Jekiełek, commander of the BCh group in the vicinity of the camp, which had its own channels. Jekiełek in-vited the two women to co-operate with his group; they pledged their membership in the Peasant Battalions group and became invaluable cou-riers. From then on, Helena (pseudonym “Helena”) ac-quired food both through or-ganizational contacts, and on her own. Her family helped her. When the food consign-ment was light enough for her to lift, she always deliv-ered it to the vicinity of the camp herself. Sometimes, she needed others to assist her. Her daughters, especially Wanda, in her teens, helped with the carrying. When it became possible to send food parcels to the camp through offi cial channels, she mailed them to prisoners whose names she received from the underground.

She did not limit herself to providing food. In 1940, she had taken the member-ship pledge in the Union of Armed Struggle, under the pseudonym “Wilga”. Work-ing for that organization as a courier, and later in the same capacity for the Peasant Bat-talions, she delivered secret messages containing infor-mation about the camp, dis-patches to the underground press and clandestine radio stations, orders and warn-ings, and illegal personal cor-respondence from the pris-oners. She also sent parcels and letters to other camps, including the Murnau POW camp. The Germans gradually be-came aware of her activities. They arrested her on morn-ing of May 19, 1943, and imprisoned her in the base-ment cells of Block no. 11, the “Death Block” in the Ausch-witz I. Despite undergoing grievous torture—as did her daughter Wanda, arrested the following day, as well—she refused to supply the names of the prisoners with whom she maintained con-tacts in the camp zone. After several months in the “Death Block”, she was sent to the Birkenau women’s camp on October 20, 1943, as prisoner number 65492. She died in the camp hospital there on March 17, 1944. For her services, Helena Płotnicka was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cross pf Grunwald Third Class and the Oświęcim Cross.

HELENA PŁOTNICKA(1902-1944)

PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL

VESTIGES OF HISTORYFROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM

A Polish eagle with the words Liberty and Victory, 1943 on the obverse, and the inscription “Poland has not perished” on the reverse was found in 1975 in Neubrandenburg. It was found

in a glass jar buried 60 cm underground. It was buried by Polish doc-tors from the hospital in Stalag II A in Neubrandenburg.

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The cabinet has almost always been connected to the former Haberfeld’s Factory of Vodka and Liquors, whose family members lived in our town. One of the wealthiest fami-lies in Oświęcim produced vodka since 1804, when their factory was founded. Around 20 years ago, I learned that in the attic of the former factory building, where the soft drink and beer bottling plant of the Oświęcimskie Przedsiębior-stwo Spożywców [Oświęcim Consumer Enterprise] was located at the time, there were items left over from the Haberfeld distillery—bottles and labels. I was not allowed to enter the attic, however. I didn’t give up that easily and took up a job at the plant. This way I could, from time to time, work on saving items from the attic. It was a bit late, however, seeing that most of the documents had been thrown out. In the factory, I took notice of the furniture. It turned out that the offi ce furniture was still that of the Haberfeld family. When it happened that the plant was to close, I decided to act: I informed the Haberfeld fam-ily that it wasn’t clear what would happen to their furni-ture. I understood that they could be simply destroyed. I received the proper power of attorney from the family, and to my surprise, the president of PSS Społem decided that the idea that the furniture be

given back to its rightful in-heritors was a very good one. They were properly secured and put through a process of extensive renovation. The Haberfeld family decided that they should stay in my hands. Today, my small mu-seum has a desk, chair, fi l-ing cabinet, a wall hanger, and the legendary cabinet, however not Ganobis’s, but Haberfeld’s in Ganobis’s possession. It is there that I keep many of my historical artifacts. A known Austrian company produced the furni-ture. While in Austria, I tried to fi nd it, however it turned out that the factory no longer existed. I was told that furni-ture made by this company is highly sought after by an-tiques collectors. There was an attempt to buy the Haber-feld collection from me, but there isn’t enough money in the world for which I’d sell them.

Mirosław Ganobis

FROM GANOBIS’S CABINET

Ganobis’s cabinet

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Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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PhotographerOś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 21, September 2010

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Almost two thousand faithful attended the 69th commemoration of the an-niversary of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s death, which took place at the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The culmination of the ceremony was a Mass at Block 11, concelebrated by the Bishop of the Bielsko-Żywiec Diocese, Tadeusz Rakoczy. Just before the event prayers were held in the cell of Father Maximilian’s death in the cellar of Block 11, and fl owers were laid and candles were lit at the Death Wall.