Information Bulletin January - June 2000.

Contents:

1. NUMBER OF VISITORS
2. ARCHIVES
3. COLLECTIONS
4. PRESERVATION
5. RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
6. SECTION FOR FORMER PRISONERS OF AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP
7. THE OFFICE FOR INFORMATION ON FORMER PRISONERS
8. PUBLICATIONS
9. EXHIBITIONS
10. EDUCATION

Figures for the numbers of visitors in the first half of 2000 were as follows:

• Overall number of visitors: 195,315, of whom 140,628 were young people
• Visitors from Poland: 88,595, of whom 75,194 were young people
• Visitors from outside Poland: 106,720, of whom 65,434 were young people

The countries accounting for the greatest numbers of visitors:

1. Poland 88,595
2. USA 16,186
3. Germany 14,610
4. France 8,614
5. Italy 7,649
6. Israel 7,290
7. Norway 6,125
8. Sweden 5,689
9. UK 5,675
10. Netherlands 2,912

59 film and television crews worked on the Museum grounds - 2 from Poland and 57 from abroad.

83 persons, 35 of them from outside Poland, visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Archives for research and educational purposes between January 1 and June 30, 2000.

In the same period, the Archives made the following valuable acquisitions:

• 45 original documents (camp letters, camp postcards, prisoner death notices);
• 62 photocopies of camp documents (letters and postcards, death notices). Particularly noteworthy are copies of the camp hospital book from Neustadt-Glewe concentration camp, including many women prisoners who had previously been in Auschwitz (the original book was made available for copying by the Warsaw Uprising Museum);
• 41 accounts by former prisoners;
• 4 memoirs by former prisoners;
• 47 questionnaires, from Poland and abroad, on the subsequent fate of prisoners.

In this period, the photographic laboratory made 4,108 photographic negatives and 3,655 prints (for the Memorial Book on the transports from Warsaw, and for archival and exhibition purposes, as well as photographs of 254 items and sketches following restoration for the Collections Department. Numerous photographs were also taken for an exhibition on Silesians in Auschwitz, organized by the Auschwitz Christian Families Association). Photographs were also taken of five official delegations that visited the Museum.

Work is continuing on the preservation of negatives of original camp photographs of prisoners.

In the first half of 2000, the Museum acquired 44 exhibits, of which 42 are artistic museum objects in the form of paintings, graphics and drawings, handicrafts, and posters. The other two items acquired are historical museum objects in the "textiles" and "camp equipment" categories. These items were donated to the Museum.

The most valuable acquisitions include:

1. Five murals in charcoal on whitewashed plaster by the prisoner Jean Bartischan, made in Auschwitz III concentration camp-Golleschau and removed from the walls of the former cement plant in Goleszów;
2. An original prisoner's necklace bearing the camp number 62655, assigned to former Sachsenhausen concentration camp prisoner Władysław Trembicki, and a prayer book that Trembicki made by hand in that camp in 1943.
3. A water-color greeting card with rhymed saint's-day wishes composed by Birkenau prisoner Hanka Jachnina; the card was presented to Irena Mann (in camp, Irena Wójcik, prisoner number 18295) by women prisoners assigned to the Unterkunft;
4. A collection of 27 drawings, illustrating the artist's experiences in the Auschwitz and Mauthausen/Ebensee concentration camp, made in 1945 by former prisoner Jan Kupiec;
5. A self-portrait in oil by former prisoner Janina Tollik, painted after the war;
6. The graphic "Never More Holocaust" by the Italian artist Franco Costa, in commemoration of the victims;
7. Two posters by Paweł Warchoł on the 55th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and the city of Oświęcim;
8. Two works by the painter Tadeusz Kinowski: an oil painting titled "Birkenau, the Burning Pyres" and a plaster model for a monument in Monowice.

All these acquisitions were added to the inventory books and recorded on 40 catalogue cards and in 38 auxiliary card files.

Research and documentation work included:

1. Publication of the article "Dobroczyńcom zza drutów" (To the Benefctors from Behind the Barbed Wire) by I. Szymańska, in the Pro Memoria bulletin (no. 12);
2. Preparation of 40 catalogue cards in the research file for new exhibits (J. Cygan, J. Kupiec);
3. Preparation of catalogue descriptions for 31 lithographs by Roger Loewig for the "Roger Loewig Gesellschaft" association, in connection with work on an extensive biography of the German artist and poet;
4. Carrying out a search in the Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen in Germany and the Yad Vashem Museum in Israel in connection with the art work of former Auschwitz prisoners Peter Edel and Alfred Glück, resulting in documentary material on 27 works by the two artists;
5. Searches and consultations were carried out and documentation compiled for institutions and private individuals including:

• The International Auschwitz Committee for the exhibition "Afterwards it?s just a past of you? at the European Parliament in Brussels;
• The Johannes Kepler Universität in Linz (Austria) for an exhibition titled, "Auschwitz Cine Ausstellung gegen das Vergessen?;
• Bonifacy Pulwicki of the Konstanty Piekarski Memorial Foundation of Calgary, Canada, for the internet publication of the book "Escaping Hell? by Konstanty Piekarski;
• The Jüdisches Museum in Berlin, in reference to the identification of aluminum utensils.

Work on the maintenance and preservation of the collections included:

The restoration and preservation of five murals removed from the walls of the former cement plant in Auschwitz III concentration camp-Golleschau.

The Natural Rubber and Vinyl Research and Development Center of the Dwory Chemical Company in Oświęcim was commissioned to perform a chemical analysis of a process occurring in camp toothbrushes, in which the plastic is crumbling and giving off an unidentified adhesive substance. The resulting consultation identified the processes taking place in the plastic, the reasons for the phenomena, and a method for preserving and properly storing these exhibits.

Loans

344 exhibits were loaned for various purposes:

• 171 were placed on display in Poland and abroad;
• 173 for preservation purposes, or to be filmed or photographed.

Visits

325 people, of whom 136 came from outside Poland, visited the Collections Department. They included staff members from similar museums, former prisoners, high-school and university students, teachers, journalists, and television crews. They were given access to the collections and to accompanying documentation.

Maintenance and preservation work carried out on the grounds of the Memorial in the first half of 2000 was made possible by funding from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and by donations from the German Federal Länder (States), the government of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation from the USA, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation in Oświęcim.

The German Federal Länder (States)

• These funds made possible the continuation of renovation work on the "Sauna" building in Birkenau. The work included repairing holes in the concrete floor. "Technical facilities" work included the start of the installation of containerized public toilets and of a toilet for staff inside the building. In January 2001, an exhibition will be opened in this largest building on the Birkenau grounds presenting pre-war family photographs belonging to Jews who were deported to and, for the most part, murdered in Auschwitz. These photographs will be accompanied by explanations of the function and history of the "Sauna."
• Another project financed by the German Federal Länder was the restoration of concrete fenceposts. This work was scheduled for completion in 2000-2004. "Stage A," now underway, is scheduled for 2000-2001. Three contractors were selected through a bidding process in the first half of 2000.

The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium

• Financial support from the Belgian government made it possible to complete the preservation of the wooden "Blockführerstube" barracks standing at the main gate to Auschwitz concentration camp (with the inscription "Arbeit macht frei), and to complete the renovation of the nearby "New Laundry" building.

The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

Ministry appropriations paid for the following work in the first half of 2000:

• Renovation and preservation work on the second floor of Block No. 13 (Auschwitz I-Main Camp), in preparation for the opening of an exhibition on the extermination of the Sinti and Roma:
  • the preservation of the roof and the second-floor ceiling beams was completed;
  • parts of the upstairs floors were restored;
  • the walls and wooden window- and doorframes were renovated
  • an under-floor heating system was installed
  • the brick elevation was waterproofed.
• Murals from the cement factory in Goleszów, the site of an Auschwitz sub-camp, were transferred and preserved.
• Horizontal insulation was installed in the former main SS guard house at Birkenau, where a tourist information office is now located.
• Fire sensors were replaced in connection with the renovation of the roof of Block No. 1 in the Auschwitz I-main camp.
• Minor renovations were made in the Museum telephone system.
• A total of approximately 99,000 zloty ($23,000) was spent through June 2000 on landscape work including tree surgery, lawn care, hedge trimming, the purchase of weed-killer, and leveling the ground.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation

• The foundation underwrote continuing preservation work on the water reservoir on the site of the men's camp in Birkenau sector BIId
• The Monuments Preservation Foundation of Warsaw, which is carrying out the work, transported the reservoir to its own workshops. The re-installation of the reservoir is scheduled for the spring of 2001.

The Lauder Foundation

• The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation of the USA is financing work including the adaptation of part of the largest building on the site of the Auschwitz I-main camp (which also contains the Visitors Reception Center) for workshops and a planned preservation studio. At the beginning of the year, bids were chosen for a surrogate investor and a contractor for this project. The actual work began with the setting up of the needed technical infrastructure.

In the contest for the 1999 Museum Event of the Year Prize, the jury chaired by the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage awarded first prize to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum for the publication of the five volume study KL Auschwitz 1940-1945. Węzłowe zagadnienia z dziejów obozu (published in German as Auschwitz 1940-1945. Studien zur Geschichte des Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz and in English as Auschwitz Concentration Camp 1940-1945: Central Issues in the History of the Camp);

On March 3, the last former prisoner from the Auschwitz Sonderkommando who still lives in Poland, Henryk Mandelbaum, recorded several hours of accounts on video. During the war, Mandelbaum worked at burning the corpses of people who had been killed in the gas chambers.

Museum custodian Piotr Setkiewicz defended his doctoral dissertation, "IG Werk Auschwitz," at the Silesian University in Katowice on April 18. Setkiewicz's dissertation covers the founding near Oświęcim of the IG Farbenindustrie chemical plant where some 11,000 Auschwitz prisoners were laborers.

Data was collected on Auschwitz prisoners and members of the resistance movement. The file of 1,558 individual entries, 308 of which include questionnaires, was maintained. Personal information forms for 4,871 prisoners were entered in the computerized data base, as were items form the subject indices to sixteen volumes of testimony. Seven data searches were carried out, thirteen reports compiled, and four video cassettes recorded. Supervision was also carried out over the transcription of eleven accounts by staff members from other departments.

An article by Henryk Świebocki, Ph.D., on the attitudes of Poles to the extermination being carried out in Auschwitz, and aid rendered to prisoners by local Oświęcim residents, was published in the January 29-30, 2000 edition of the leading Polish daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Two articles on the same subject, by Świebocki and J. Dąbrowska, were published in the Pro Memoria Bulletin (no. 12).

Items donated to or acquired by the Museum included secret messages, camp letters, poems written in the camp, a prayer book, and a self-portrait by a woman who was a prisoner in Auschwitz.

The office issued 2,153 written responses to requests for information from similar institutions, former Auschwitz prisoners, and forced laborers employed by German firms engaged in work on the camp. In 1,020 cases, the information was sent outside Poland, to Ukraine, Israel, Germany, the USA, and France. Oral responses were given to 651 queries (including 325 information-seekers from abroad).

Through June, the Museum published the following titles:

• Rudolf Reder, Bełżec (see Publications).
• Alfred Gawalewicz, Refleksje z poczekalni do gazu. (see Publications).
• Los Polaków i los Żydów w KL Auschwitz The Fate of Poles and the Fate of Jews in Auschwitz Concentration Camp - educational material for teachers
• Kazimierz Albin, Steckbrieflich Gesucht (German version of List gończy, see Publications).
• Marian Kołodziej, The 55th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp and the city of Oświęcim (Poster)

Reprints and Reissues:

• Tadeusz Sobolewicz, But I survived (see Publications).
• Auschwitz. Nationalsozialistisches Vernichtungslager (see Publications).
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Information Guide in Polish, German, English, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Hungarian, Swedish, Hebrew, Czech, and Russian (see Publications).
• Video cassette: "Auschwitz-Historia-Teraźniejszość-Przyszłość? (Auschwitz: Past, Present, and Future; see Publications).

An exhibition was prepared under the title "Views.?" It featured post-war works about Auschwitz by artists who were not themselves prisoners, and had no other direct personal association with the subject. This was the latest in a series of exhibitions based on the Museum collections. Earlier shows featured works created in the camp itself, or created after the war by former prisoners as a sort of account of the camp. The scenario and design for the exhibition were by Robert Płaczek. On view in the temporary exhibition space in block No. 12 from January 27 to February 28, 200, the exhibition was prepared in the museum artistic studio.

The exhibition "Portraits," opened on March 7, was the next exhibition in the series. It consisted of 87 portraits by camp prisoners, painted or drawn both illegally and on the orders of SS men. The artists included Xawery Dunikowski, Wincenty Gawron, Dinah Gottliebowa (Babbitt), Mieczysław Kościelniak, Marian Ruzamski, and Leon Turalski. The works were on view in the temporary exhibition space in Block No. 12 through September 30. Scenario: Robert Płaczek, arrangement: Robert Płaczek and Teresa Zbrzeska, preparation: Museum artistic studio.

In April, a new exhibition was opened in Japan featuring Museum exhibits that had previously been shown in many Japanese cities under the auspices of Greenpeace. This exhibition marked the founding of a museum dedicated to Auschwitz and the Second World War. Teresa Zbrzeszka, who was responsible for the scenario and also took part in preparing and setting up the exhibition, was invited to the opening.

Work continued on the installation of the "Descriptive and Historical Description of the Site of Auschwitz Concentration Camp," an information system.

Work continued on setting up a permanent exhibition in the "Sauna".

Preparations are underway for establishing a permanent exhibition on the destruction of the Sinti and Roma. In April, a meeting was held with representatives of the Sinti and Roma Documentation Center in Heidelberg to discuss organizational matters.

Education Center staff members continued work on publishing two series of Historical and Lesson Materials for Teachers:

• educational materials for teachers preparing young people for visits to memorial sites;
• thematic packages for teachers, students, and guides titled, "Selected Issues from the History of Auschwitz."
• "The Fate of Poles and the Fate of Jews in Auschwitz Concentration Camp" was published in January.

Postgraduate course.

The postgraduate course on Totalitarianism, Nazism, and the Holocaust, organized by the Museum Educational Center and the Pedagogical Academy in Cracow, continued (see The Work of the Education Center):

• Jan. 31 ? Feb. 2 ? winter examination period
• March 10-19 ? spring session

Sociological Research

With the assistance of Education Center staff, Marek Kucia of the Jagiellonian University continued his sociological research on groups of young people visiting the Museum and the adults who accompany them.

Seminars and study residencies for teachers and university and secondary-school students (organized wholly or in part by the Education Center)

• January 17-18: seminar for vocational school students from Brzeszcze;
• January 2-3: seminar for seniors from the Construction Trades School in Oświęcim;
• March 20-23: seminar on "Auschwitz - History and Symbolism" for history and Polish teachers from southern Poland (admission organized by the Provincial Methodological Center in Bielsko);
• March 20-29: seminar for seniors from the Żeromski Secondary School in Bielsko;
• May 3-5: three-day seminar for students of international relations and political science from the Jagiellonian and Wrocław universities;
• May 9-13: seminar for American teachers in Germany;
• June 2: one-day seminar for students from the USA and students taking part in study trips around Poland and East-Central Europe, organized in cooperation with the Jagiellonian University English Department;
• June 3: seminar for teacher-methodologists, in cooperation with the German Institute for Teacher Education;
• June 8: seminar for Evangelical clergy from Germany;
• June 18-23: help in organizing a residency for 35 Poles and Germans. Meetings between young people and Museum research staff on selected issues in the history of Auschwitz: SS physicians, medical experiments, the fate of the Roma, art in the camp, and the symbolism of Auschwitz. The program also included a lecture by Director Oleksy on the mission and role of the Museum. An integral part of the program was methodological tours of the Auschwitz site for the teachers from Germany and Poland, who were here at the invitation of the ACS (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Schüler).

Lectures, talks, and museum lessons for groups of young people and teachers prepared and conducted by the

Collections Department staff gave talks and lectures for 14 study groups (242 people) on "Art by Auschwitz Prisoners" and "Educational Opportunities in the Auschwitz Memorial (J.Cygan, J.Kupiec, J.Kaplon).

• February 4: Historical Department staff members Franciszek Piper and Andrzej Strzelecki delivered lectures on "The Extermination of Poles in Auschwitz," "The Apparatus of Mass Extermination," and "Looting of the Victims' Property" to participants in the postgraduate course;
• March 11: Helena Kubica, Ph.D., lectured the teachers attending the course on "The Fate of Children and Young People in Auschwitz";
  
• March 30: Irena Strzelecka gave a lecture to Polish young people on "Medical Experiments in Auschwitz";
• March 17: Helena Kubica delivered a lecture to secondary-school students on "Medical Experiments in Auschwitz with an Emphasis on the Experiments of Dr. Mengele."

Staff members Andrzej Kacorzyk and Alicja Bialecka organized and conducted:

• March 2: A museum lesson in the Polish Block;
• March 27: A study residency for students from Secondary School No. VIII in Cracow;
• March 29: A study residency for students from the Mechanical-Electrical School in Kety, Poland;
• April 17: A study residency for seniors from the Mechanical-Electrical School in Kety, Poland;
• June 12: A study residency for students from Secondary School No. VIII in Cracow;

See also ?Seminars and study residencies for teachers and university and secondary-school students,? above.

6 talks were given to school students and one lecture to participants in the postgraduate course.

See also "Seminars and Study Residencies for teachers and secondary-school and university students," above.

Museum staff members took part in educational conferences and business and study trips:

• January 26-28:Historical Department staff member Franciszek Piper took part in the International Holocaust Forum in Stockholm, where he delivered a talk on "Polish Awareness of Auschwitz and the Holocaust";
• February 17-20: Andrzej Kacorzyk of the Education Center took part in a seminar in Berlin at the conclusion of a study residency at memorial sites in Poland;
• March 2-3: Andrzej Kacorzyk delivered a lecture on "The Role, Tasks, and Development Plans of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum" at a seminar in Osnabrück, Germany, on "The New Virtual Museum";
• March 13-17: Alicja Bialecka of the Education Center led a workshop on "The Origins and Results of Prejudices" at the First Beskidzki Festival of Science;
• March 28: Franciszek Piper of the Historical Department took part in a conference for teachers and young people from Poland, Germany, and Israel at the International Youth Meeting House in Oświęcim and gave a talk on "The Polish Awareness of Auschwitz";
• March 26-29: organizational assistance to and participation in an international conference on "The Art of Commemoration" at the International Youth meeting House by Andrzej Kacorzyk, Alicja Bialecka and Krystyna Oleksy (Education Center);
• May 3-5: Henryk Świebocki, Ph.D. (Section for Former Prisoners) attended the Thirteenth Annual National Congress of the Italian Union of Former Political Prisoners;
• May 19-23: Archives staff members attended a training session in Terezin, Czech Republic (site of the Theresienstadt Ghetto-concentration camp), organized as part of our cooperation with the museum there. Participants took part in ceremonies commemorating the victims of the ghetto, and visited the site of the Small Fortress, the Ghetto Museum, and the Jewish cemetery, as well as familiarizing themselves with the collections and activities of the archives;
• May 28: Jadwiga Dąbrowska (Section for Former Prisoners) attended May 28 ceremonies in Terezin marking the Day of Remembrance for the victims of Theresienstadt;
• May 30: Franciszek Piper (Historical Department) delivered a lecture on "Historical Controversies about Auschwitz" at a session of the Second World War Workshop of the Polish Academy of Sciences History Institute;
• June 1: Andrzej Kacorzyk of the Education Center took part in a panel discussion on "The Controversy over Auschwitz" as part of the 94th annual Katolichentag (congress of German Catholics) in Hamburg.