Latest News(2008)
6-/-0/2008r, 20: 1   | Henryk Mandelbaum (1922-2008) | Former Auschwitz prisoner Henryk Mandelbaum, the last member of the camp Sonderkommando living in Poland, died on June 17 at the age of 85. The Sonderkommando was a group of prisoners forced by the Germans to work in the crematoria and gas chambers.
Mandelbaum was one of those former prisoners who were always willing to meet with visitors at the Auschwitz Memorial. During these encounters, he talked about not only his own tragic experiences, but also his views of the contemporary world. He cooperated frequently with the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. In May of this year, he shared his reminiscences with participants in a seminar at the Rafał Lemkin Center. “He was incredibly reliable. He wanted to meet people in every situation. If he had an appointment with a group, he always kept his word. He was outgoing, and contact with people brought him joy,” said Igor Bartosik, head of the Museum Collections Department and a friend of Mandelbaum.
“Henryk Mandelbaum was one of those people who experienced the very worst of Birkenau. He bore witness throughout his life, urging everyone he met to respect life. He knew what evil meant, and he warned against it day in and day out. For me personally, he was proof that people without religious belief can be truly holy,” said Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, director of the Museum.
“Mandelbaum called himself a graduate of the university of life. In fact, the scale of his experience is simply unimaginable. He was a magical personality. He attracted people like a magnet,” said Bartosik. “He could talk about even the most difficult topics in a way that everyone could understand. There was no anger or thirst for revenge in him, and he did not judge people. He told me, ‘Remember, people are different, but not all of them are evil and you cannot measure them all by the same standard.’”
Henryk Mandelbaum was born on December 15, 1922 in a poor Polish-Jewish family in Olkusz. He had to go to work at an early age. When his entire family was forced to go to the Dąbrowa Górnicza ghetto in 1940, Henryk went into hiding. His parents were later transferred to the ghetto in Sosnowiec, and deported from there to Auschwitz, where they were murdered in the gas chamber.
Mandelbaum remained in hiding, aided by local people. He risked his life maintaining contacts between the ghetto and the “Aryan side,” delivering food to the imprisoned Jews. He was arrested in April 1944 after someone informed the Germans about him. They held him briefly in jail and then sent him to Auschwitz on April 10. As prisoner number 181970, he was assigned to the Sonderkommando after quarantine. In April 1945, he managed to escape from the evacuation march in the vicinity of Jastrzębia Zdrój. His sister was the only other survivor from among the whole family.
After the war, he spent 16 years managing a branch of a public commercial enterprise. He also bred foxes. After his official retirement in 1972, he continued to drive a freight truck for the next 15 years. He loved traveling, and visited places including Columbia and Canada. He also had an impressive collection of china figurines.
“He was a pleasant, cheerful man. In the worst of circumstances, he remained optimistic and accepted whatever fate threw at him without ever giving up. After what he lived through, he could have been morose and bitter, but he was just the opposite—he bubbled with joy and good humor, because he was happy, above all, to have survived. He was my best friend. I’ll never have another friend like him,” said Bartosik.
The Sonderkommando
The Sonderkommando was a special group of Jews forced by the SS to remove the bodies from the gas chambers and burn the corpses. One of the first Sonderkommandos in Auschwitz numbered 80 prisoners. These prisoners were liquidated in August 1942. The largest Sonderkommando numbered 900 at the beginning of the summer of 1944, when the transports of Hungarian Jews were arriving in Birkenau.
These prisoners were isolated from the others. They were quartered in block 11 at the Auschwitz I main camp, in a separate block in Birkenau, and, from 1944, in rooms in the crematoria buildings.
When the numbers of transports of Jews to Auschwitz decreased at the end of the summer of 1944, the Nazis decided to liquidate the Sonderkommando prisoners gradually. They murdered about 200 of them in September. The other prisoners realized what danger they were in, and began planning a mutiny.
Soviet POWs, who were also assigned to the Sonderkommando, helped the Jews to prepare. The prisoners planned to blow up the crematoria, burn down the barracks, cut through the barbed-wire fence, and escape en masse. They had rudimentary grenades made with explosives acquired from women prisoners assigned to salvaging old airplanes. The SS quickly learned of the mutiny, and took repressive measures that claimed numerous victims.
On the morning of October 7, 1944, word spread that the Nazis planned to liquidate 300 Sonderkommando members. The Jews decided to put their mutiny plans into effect rather than to submit without a fight. The ringleaders were the Polish Jews Jankiel Handelsman, Josef Deresiński, Załmen Gradowski, and Josef Darębus. Setting a crematorium on fire was to be the signal for the mutiny to begin.
At noon, the SS came to take away the prisoners from crematorium IV. Armed with hammers and hatchets, the prisoners attacked them. They set the crematorium on fire. The prisoners quartered in crematorium II joined in, cutting the camp fence and making a run in the direction of Rajsko, where they barricaded themselves in a barn. The Nazis threw hand grenades into the barn and set it on fire. Machine-gun fire killed many of the Jews. About 200 remained alive; they were seized and shot soon afterwards.
There were 663 men in the Sonderkommando before the mutiny and 212 afterwards—the revolt claimed 451 lives. The Nazis quartered the remaining Sonderkommando members in crematorium III.
After suppressing the mutiny, the Germans began investigating the source of the explosives. They identified four Jewish girls who worked in the factory as the suppliers. Roza Robota, Ala Gertner, Regina Safirsztain, and Estera Wajcblum were hanged in January 1945, 21 days before liberation. Several dozen of the Sonderkommando prisoners survived Auschwitz.
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| 6-/-0/2008r, 18: 1 | Volkswagen Donates a New Van to the Museum | Volkswagen, thanks to help from Christoph Heubner, the Vice-Chairman of the International Auschwitz Committee, has donated a new T5 model van to the Museum. The Museum has cooperated with the German company for more than a decade, above all in educational ventures. Volkswagen trainees come to Oświęcim each year to learn about the history of the Memorial and also perform chores at the Auschwitz site.
Dr. Horst Neumann of the Volkswagen board handed the keys to the new van to Museum deputy director Krystyna Oleksy on June 16. Members of Volkswagen management accompanied him to Oświęcim and spent several days at the International Youth Meeting House, attending a seminar on the history of the camp. They joined a group of young Volkswagen trainees (who were working at the Museum) and Museum staff in paying tribute to the victims. They placed floral tributes and lighted candles at the Death Wall in the courtyard of block 11.
“Material support is very important to us, of course, and we are happy that Volkswagen helps in this way. This is the third vehicle they have donated. This donation also has symbolic and moral significance for us. It indicates Volkswagen’s interest in educational matters,” she said. “We have been cooperating for more than a dozen years, and four groups of young people in training at the company’s factories come here each year for two-week seminars. At the moment, these young people are helping our preservationists carry out work on the camp fence.”
“Volkswagen is a large German company. We are conscious of our history. We want to make our young workers aware of this. We are very happy that many of our trainees and future managers come to this place,” said Neumann, who is responsible for human resources on the Volkswagen board of directors. “The van, as a practical aid, will surely be helpful in the everyday work of the Museum, and I hope that it will remain in service a very long time,” he continued. “The most important thing, however, is that our young employees can come here to learn about the history of this place.”
The Museum and the International Youth Meeting House in Oświęcim cooperate to put on the seminars about the history of the Third Reich and Auschwitz, which are attended jointly by young people from Volkswagen in Wolfsburg and from the Technical and Commercial School Complex in Bielsko-Biała. The pedagogical aim of the program is to maintain the memory of the things that happened in the past and to make young people aware of the dangers to democracy and human rights that exist today.
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| 5-/-0/2008r, 11: 1 | Never Again?Raphael Lemkin Center and Auschwitz Museum seminar on genocide prevention | The first seminar organized by the Raphael Lemkin Center for Genocide Prevention and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will take place in Oświęcim from May 12 to 19. The participants from over a dozen states, including Argentina, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Cambodia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Latvia, and the USA will discuss about issues of genocide prevention. Lecturers will include some of the best-known researchers in the field of genocide and associated areas: Israel Charny, Barbara Harff, Ted Gurr, Gregory H. Stanton, and Philip Zimbardo. The seminar will be officially inaugurated by professor Władysław Bartoszewski, the chairman of the International Auschwitz Council.
On May 15 the professors will take part in the discussion titled "Never Again?" organized at the Jagiellonian University. The meeting in Cracow will be conducted in English.
Seminars concentrated on the subject of genocide, genocide prevention and response mechanisms are planned to be conducted three times throughout the year. Their aim is sensitizing hundreds of individuals in government positions throughout the world to genocide problems in all its dimensions including its enduring political, economic and humanitarian consequences.
The Raphael Lemkin Genocide Prevention Center is being set up by The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR), in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. It had received the support of the former German President Johannes Rau, who recently has passed away, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, former US Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat, Prince Hassan of Jordan, and former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski. The Center was set up to coalesce decision-makers in the entire world for preventing genocide and armed conflict. It had received the support of the former German President Johannes Rau, who recently has passed away, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, former US Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat, Prince Hassan of Jordan, and former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski.
Raphael Lemkin, whose name the Center bears, was a Polish Jew and lawyer who, already before World War II, had coined the term "genocide". During the war he was able to make his way to the USA, where he remained after the end of hostilities. In 1948 The UN Convention on the Prevention and Prosecution of the Crime of Genocide was adopted in part thanks to his ceaseless efforts. The Convention was the international community's response to the crime of the Holocaust. Its authors intended it to prevent mass crimes to be committed in the future. The reality of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda, however, demonstrated that, more than 60 years after the liberation of the camp at Auschwitz, humanity has not drawn the lessons of the crimes committed in World War II.
The conference is being sponsored by Fred Schwartz, AIPR founder and director, the Ford Foundation, and the Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future Foundation.
 Download information (*.doc format) about:
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
LIST OF LECTURERS
SUPPORTERS
MORE ON AIPR
For more information contact Jan Gebert, press spokesman of conference: jan_gebert@post.pl, cell-phone: +48 500 102 793
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| 5-/-0/2008r, 05: 1 | The Seventeenth March of the Living | On Thursday, nearly 6 thousand Jews from over 55 countries around the world were joined by 1,600 Poles in paying homage and commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in the 17th March of the Living.
The March began at the Auschwitz gate that bears the inscription Arbeit macht frei—“work will set you free.” The blowing of the shofar, the traditional ram’s horn, signaled the start. Its sound is an appeal to God for mercy.
The March followed the Trail of Death between the Auschwitz I and the Auschwitz II-Birkenau sites. The participants included former Auschwitz prisoner and Sonderkommando member Henryk Mandelbaum, Israel Defence Forces Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, and Chelsea Football Club manager Avram Grant.
Israeli actor Chaim Topol, renowned for the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, said during the ceremonies that “six million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. We are under an obligation to tell our brothers around the world that we will not forget.”
Gabi Ashkenazi said: “Standing on this ground that witnessed the greatest monstrosity in human history, I call upon all nations to remove hatred from the surface of the earth, and to remove anti-Semitism from the world. We must all do everything in our power to prevent this history from being repeated. Never again!”
Holocaust survivor Felix Zandman, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Director Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Ph. D., Israeli writer Eitan Haber, and students lighted six gigantic candles that burned during the observances to symbolize the victims of the Holocaust.
The commemoration concluded with the recitation of the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. March participants placed dozens of wooden tablets, symbolizing matzevot (Jewish gravestones) on the train tracks and ramp where the Nazis carried out the selection of Jews brought there from all over Europe.
The March of the Living
The first March of the Living was organized in 1988, and was of an educational nature. It was aimed at young Jews living in the Diaspora, and at young Israelis. The goal was to make both Diaspora and Israeli youth aware that the traumatic World War II experiences of their ancestors are an integral part of the Jewish identity.
As an educational initiative, the March has two components. The first part is the trip to Poland and the march from Auschwitz I to Birkenau. The second part is a visit to Israel, including participation in celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. Young Poles have officially taken part since 1998.
The March is traditionally held on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the date of which was selected by the Knesset on April 12, 1951. The April date is connected with the anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The original name of the holiday was Yom HaShoah u’Mered HaGetaot (Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Uprising in the Ghetto). Later, the day was observed as Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laGvura (Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism). Now it is simply called Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on the 27th day of the month of Nisan. In 2008, this corresponded to May 2, but the observances were moved up one day because May 2 was the Sabbath.
Life comes to a halt at 10:00 a.m. in Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Sirens sound and traffic stops. International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been held in European countries for several years. It is observed in Germany, the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. All victims of Nazi genocide are commemorated on the January date.
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| 4-/-0/2008r, 08: 0 | Canadian Prime Minister visited the Auschwitz Memorial | Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum on April 5. He paid his respects to the victims at the Death Wall in the courtyard of block 11, where the Nazis shot thousands of people. The Prime Minister, on a private visit, was accompanied by Museum Director Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, who informed him in French about the history of Auschwitz.
Harper toured large parts of the Museum exhibition. He saw the cellars of block 11, which housed the camp jail and where St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, a Conventual Franciscan friar, died a martyr's death. Harper also visited block 4, dedicated to the Holocaust of the Jews, and block 5, where part of the victims' property was stored. In addition, he saw the crematorium and gas chamber.
In the second part of his visit, Harper toured the site of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. He walked along the railroad platform where the Nazis conducted selection, before lighting a candle and laying a wreath at the monument to the victims of the camp. He was accompanied by a relative of Czesław Mordowicz, a Polish Jew who was an Auschwitz prisoner before escaping in May 1944. Mordowicz, one of the authors of a report on Nazi crimes that was delivered to the Allies while the war was still in progress, settled in Canada afterwards.
"We are witness here to the vestiges of unspeakable cruelty, horror and death. Let us never forget these things and work always to prevent this repetition. Lord, bless the souls of those who suffered and perished here and deliver us from evil," wrote Harper in the visitors' book.
Stephen Harper has been Prime Minister of Canada for two years. He is one of the founders of the Conservative Party of Canada, the largest party in the Canadian House of Commons.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | - Mass at the Dead Sea
A Joint Project by the Museum, the Lublin Archdiocesan Seminary, and the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem
2-/-0/2008r, 25: 1
| | - What Did A Witness See?
Responsibility and the Influence of the Individual on the Course of Events—An Interdisciplinary Project for Teaching about the Holocaust for Intermediate and Secondary Schools
2-/-0/2008r, 20: 1
| | | | - The Lost Family
The 63rd Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
2-/-0/2008r, 08: 1
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© 1999-2005r. Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau
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