On Auschwitz

Prisoners of Auschwitz were able to send various types of illegal messages—both within the camp and outside the barbed wire fences. Some were short letters addressed to family members; others were messages and reports for underground resistance organizations. Dr. Wojciech Płosa, the head of the Auschwitz Museum Archives, discusses this unique collection of documents.

Nazi Germany deported some 1,3 million people to Auschwitz. Only a little above 400 thousand were registered in the camp as prisoners. Some could conduct correspondence with the outside world, however it had a unique character. Dr. Wojciech Płosa, the head of the Archives of the Museum talks about official prisoners’ correspondence: letters and postcards sent out from the camp and sent to the camp by their relatives.

Bogdan Bartnikowski was born in Warsaw in 1932. During the Warsaw Uprising, he and his mother were expelled from their home. The Germans initially sent them to a transit camp in Pruszków, and then deported them to Auschwitz where they were separated. On January 11, 1945, both were evacuated to Berlin-Blankenburg, where they were imprisoned until their liberation on April 22, 1945. After this, they returned to Warsaw. Bogdan Bartnikowski is the author of memoirs, including "Childhood Behind Barbed Wire.” In the „On Auschwitz" podcast, we invite you to listen to an interview with Bogdan Bartnikowski about his wartime experiences.

In August and September 1944 -  after the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising -  almost 13,000 inhabitants of the occupied capital city and surrounding towns: men, women, the elderly, children, even infants, were deported to Auschwitz by the German authorities. Dr. Wanda Witek-Malicka of the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre talks about their fate in the camp. --- We wish to thank Kate Weinrieb for her help in the production of the English version of the podcast. In the picture: Jadwiga and Aleksander Bogdaszewski with their children, photograph taken in 1944, in Warsaw. Apart from two-year-old Basia, who was in hospital when the Uprising broke out, the rest of the family were expelled from Warsaw and then, on 12 August, deported to Auschwitz. Aleksander was next transferred to Flossenbürg, where he died in 1944, whereas Jadwiga was transferred in a women’s transport to another camp in Germany. Their children, Zdzisława, aged 10, and Stanisław, aged 6, were liberated in Auschwitz.