On Auschwitz

Latest Episodes:

The interview with Dr. Piotr Cywiński about his book "Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human". May 20, 2022

Show notes

“Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human” is a new book by the Auschwitz Museum Director Dr. Piotr Cywiński. It is the first attempt - on a global scale - to delve so deeply into human emotions inside the camp. It is a must-read for those seeking to understand what Auschwitz was all about.

The gathering of materials and work on the publication took almost six years. Piotr Cywiński analysed nearly 250 books with memoirs of survivors of the German Nazi camp Auschwitz and extensive hitherto unpublished archival material containing their accounts. On this basis, he presented an in-depth reflection on the condition of people subjected to the process of turning into prisoners of the concentration camp.

Listen to the interview with Dr. Piotr Cywiński about the book in the podcast.
Buy the book “Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human” in our online bookstore.

Read more about the book.

"On Auschwitz" (20): SS garrison in the Auschwitz camp May 17, 2022

Show notes

During the time of operation of Auschwitz, some 8,100-8,200 SS men worked there as part of the camp garrison. In our podcast Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of Research Center of the Auschwitz Memorial, talks about functioning of the SS garrison in the Auschwitz camp complex, its organizational structure and everyday work in the management, functioning, and isolation of the camp.

We also recommend our online lesson: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/2021-zaloga-en/

"On Auschwitz" (19): registration photographs of Auschwitz prisoners Apr 06, 2022

Show notes

In the thousands of preserved registration photographs of Auschwitz prisoners, we can see faces of the men and women imprisoned in the camp.

Dr Wojciech Płosa, the head of Auschwitz Memorial Archives, talks about the history of these photographs.

"On Auschwitz" (18): sub-camps Mar 04, 2022

Show notes

The Auschwitz concentration camp had almost 50 sub‑camps. The largest of them had extensive administrative structures, separate hospital barracks, showers and even small crematoria. In the smaller ones, prisoners were locked up for the night in rooms or cellars—there were no fences or guard towers there and meals were delivered from the main camp. The majority of prisoners were employed in the armaments and extractive industries, or agriculture. At the beginning of 1945, they held 35,000 men and women prisoners, more than Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau combined (31,000).

Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Memorial research center talks about the history of Auschwitz sub-camps.
(in the picture: Trzebinia sub-camp)

"On Auschwitz" (17): prisoners with purple triangles - Jehovah’s Witnesses in Auschwitz Feb 15, 2022

Show notes

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

Teresa Wontor-Cichy from the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center talks about the history and fate of some 400 Jehovah’s Witnesses incarcerated in the camp.
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In the picture:
A German Jehovah’s Witness Marta Proppe born on 26 December 1899
In #Auschwitz from 12 November 1942 No. 24418
She was transferred to KL Gross-Rosen. She survived.

"On Auschwitz" (16): The research on the number of victims of the camp Jan 26, 2022

Show notes

The historians of the Memorial today estimate, that the Germans murdered around 1,1 million out of 1,3 million people deported to Auschwitz.

Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Museum Research Centre, talks about the history of research on the number of Auschwitz victims.

"On Auschwitz" (15): The camp through eyes of a child Jan 13, 2022

Show notes

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

Dr. Wanda Witek-Malicka from Memorial’s Research Center talks about the Auschwitz camp through the eyes of a child.

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Listen also to the podcast "Children in Auschwitz": https://anchor.fm/auschwitz-memorial/episodes/On-Auschwitz-8-Children-at-Auschwitz-e16t4gh

"On Auschwitz" (14): Starvation and slave labour of Auschwitz prisoners Dec 27, 2021

Show notes

Two extremely important factors in the exhaustion, deprivation and destruction of prisoners at Auschwitz were hunger and hard slave labour.

Dr. Jacek Lachendro of the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre talks in our podcast about this aspect of the camp's functioning.

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Listen also to the podcast about living and sanitary conditions as well as camp clothing: https://anchor.fm/auschwitz-memorial/episodes/On-Auschwitz-10-Living-and-sanitary-conditions-as-well-as-camp-clothing-at-Auschwitz-e18dcik

"On Auschwitz" (13): The fate of Sonderkommando prisoners Dec 20, 2021

Show notes

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

Prisoners assigned to this unit, employed in places of mass extermination, could not refuse to do their work or ask to be transferred to perform other tasks in the camp. Failure to carry out the instructions of the SS would result in immediate death.

Dr. Igor Bartosik from the Research Center of the Memorial talks about the fate of Sonderkommando prisoners.

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Listen also to our podcast about the first crematorium and the beginnings of the Sonderkommando: https://anchor.fm/auschwitz-memorial/episodes/On-Auschwitz-6-the-first-crematorium-and-the-Sonderkommando-in-Auschwitz-e14rnsj

"On Auschwitz" (12): Polish and Jewish prisoners in the camp Nov 30, 2021

Show notes

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

Since Germans established the camp in spring 1940 with the members of Polish resistance and intelligentsia in mind, Poles dominated in the camp at first. This situation began to change in March 1942, when mass deportations of Jews for extermination began.

Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center, talks about the situation of Polish and Jewish prisoners in the camp.

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