Academic literature on the topic 'Birkenau (Concentration camp)'

To solve insurmountable manpower shortages in its concentration camp guard forces, the Nazi ss turned in early 1943 to an untapped, highly experienced and brutal source. Former Soviet prisoners of war recruited in 1941 and 1942 and trained at the Trawniki training camp in Poland, had effectuated the mass murder of over one million Jews in the three Operation “Reinhard” killing centers in about 9 months. By early 1943, however, some of those guards had come to doubt the wisdom of their collaboration with the Nazis, and deserted to the partisans. ss authorities decided to solve manning shortages in concentration camps by transferring 150 Trawniki guards to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in March 1943. By failing to accommodate the foreign auxiliaries’ discontent, Auschwitz’s commandant faced his own mass desertion three months later. Berlin’s response to events at Auschwitz fundamentally reconfigured the relationship between the ss and its eastern guards in the Reich’s entire concentration camp system. About 1,500 Trawniki-trained guards eventually entered the camp system and served loyally until the Reich’s end. In coming to know their Slavic clients, the “new Soviet men,” the Nazis abandoned collaboration and turned to hierarchical discipline and integration with their own German guards.

The book by Halina Rusek Koleżanki z Birkenau. Esej o pamiętaniu [Friends from Birkenau: An essay on remembering] published by the University of Silesia is a kind of diary about the life of women in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The author describes the fate of her mother and her friends confined in one of the most horrific war camps. This publication, apart from descriptions and memories of female prisoners, contains original letters and photographs collected by families, which allows the reader to refer to the past more directly. The book was divided by the author into chapters which intensify the women’s experiences: from pre-war times through the war period to regaining freedom and returning to their family homes. Reading the book, one gets to know the early life of young girls who were unexpectedly captured and transported to the concentration camp. Their fates are intertwined with the struggle for existence, forced labour, camp experiences and the anticipated freedom. Important throughout the book is the documentation collected by the families of the prisoners. Post-war letters, mutual contacts, feelings and family memories make the reader feel close to the characters. The author tries to describe the lives of girls coming from different regions of Poland, whose fates were intertwined with each other. The book shows different ways in which the female prisoners were treated, based on their nationalities. In an attempt to make camp life more real for the reader, the author refers to prison correspondence. Halina Rusek’s publication shows young readers how important it is to remember the past and what concentration camps were.

Nazi Concentration Camp Vocabulary in Oral Interpreting in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in the Opinion of Interpreters and Spanish-Speaking Visitors The article presents some of the results obtained as part of multi-stage research project that was carried out in 2018-2020. Its purpose was to collect information on interpreting performed for visitors at the Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum. The article discusses the difficulty of translating the camp vocabulary when performing the above-mentioned interpreting. Thirty interpreters shared their views on the oral translation as well as 96 visitors, for whom the information during the tour was provided by a Spanish speaking interpreter.

This article is a study of the results of archaeological research conducted at the site of the former German concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Jawischowitz forced labour sub-camp attached to it. It discusses historical objects produced from plastics, as a result of chemical modification of natural products or synthesis of products of chemical processing of coal, oil or natural gas. The history of previous archaeological research at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex and its sub-camps is outlined. The scope and regions of research that were carried out by the authors between 2015 and 2022 are discussed. Plastic products have been characterised by grouping them in terms of raw material and function, distinguishing among other things everyday objects and parts of clothing. On this basis, a comparative base was created, which can serve as a basis for applying a preliminary chronological division of plastic products.

The author of the article, one of the acclaimed Polish cinematographers, describes his practical eforts involved in making two short documentary films on Holocaust directed by him. The first one,Sonderzug (1978), was based on Stok’s idea to recreate his first emotional reaction to the landscape around Treblinka in the film that lasts 9 minutes, as long as the way of the Jews from the ramp to their end in the death camp. The other film, Prayer (1981), is the portrayal of a Japanese Buddhist monk praying at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The formal inspiration of the film came from Japanese visual art.

Abstract This article focuses on Italian Holocaust testimonies written by three female survivor-writers—Edith Bruck, Liana Millu, and Giuliana Tedeschi. It considers how these authors use diverse literary forms to represent the experiences of mothers and daughters in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Key passages in Tedeschi's survivor memoir C’è un punto della terra show the extent to which her experience was shaped by her separation from her children, and by feelings of maternal longing. Millu's autobiographical story collection Il fumo di Birkenau deftly employs the imaginative techniques of fiction to represent maternal nurturing and sacrifice. In these stories, the brutal lack of solidarity inside the camp is balanced by depictions of sisterly and motherly care among the female prisoners. Hungarian-born Bruck feels unable to recount her Holocaust memories in her mother tongue, even though much of what she has written is either for or to her mother. One such work is Lettera alla madre, a deeply affecting autobiographical novel that takes the form of an undeliverable letter. The text focuses on the unresolved relationship between the survivor-daughter and her mother, who was gassed on the day they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This paper is based on a study of the records of prisoners in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with the aim of uncovering as much information as possible about camp interpreters, their work and their attempts to ease the hardships of other prisoners, often risking their own lives in the process. As will be demonstrated, the generally accepted deontological norms for interpreting in community settings were not applicable to concentration camps, and different norms were adopted which were clearly justified, under the circumstances. The paper in particular investigates why interpreters were needed in the concentration camps, who they were, how they were recruited for the job, what their language combinations were, what their duties were, when the interpreters were required, and how they performed their duties as well what their roles were.

The article gives a multifaceted interpretation of the functions of a concentration camp fairy tale from the perspective of folklore studies (i.e. its socio-integrative, aesthetic, didactic/educational, compensatory/cathartic and trauma management functions) and literary studies (strategies of women’s writing about the Holocaust and the war, and the camp testimony). The author analyses the novel Wakacje nad Adriatykiem (1970) and an extended interview Królestwo za mgłą (2017) by Zofia Posmysz, an inmate of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe, who stylised her camp memories as a traditional folk tale, thus commemorating the fairy tales told by her camp friend Zofia Jachimczak, who did not survive Auschwitz. The author comes to the conclusion that a concentration camp fairy tale seems to be a complete genre and a comprehensive structure of meaning that makes it possible to express the inexpressible.

The article presents issues of tourism development in Oświęcim – a town that remains in the shadow of the former genocide site of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The authors’ aim is to present the results of research on the image of the town, as well as activities leading to a change of the unfavourable image of Oświęcim: “a town overshadowed by a museum”. They are included in “The Strategy for Tourism Development in Oświęcim, 2018-2030”, developed with the support of the authors of this article. The paper also presents an analysis of tourism development and tourist assets with respect to using them to create a supplementary offer for tourists visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

I analyze the behavior of Jews imprisoned in the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau extermination camps in order to illustrate a systematic process of deception and psychological conditioning, which the Nazis employed during World War II to preclude Jewish resistance to the Final Solution. In Chapter I, I present resistance historiography as it has developed since the end of the war. In Chapter II, I delineate my own argument on Jewish behavior during the Final Solution, limiting my definition of resistance and the applicability of my thesis to behavior in the extermination camp, or closed, environment. In Chapters III, IV, and V, I present a detailed narrative of the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau revolts using secondary sources and selected survivor testimony. Finally, in Chapter VI, I isolate select parts of the previous narratives and apply my argument to demonstrate its validity as an explanation for Jewish behavior.

Le 27 juillet 1942, la Sipo-SD de Bruxelles ouvre le camp de rassemblement pour Juifs, établi dans la caserne Dossin à Malines. La fonction de ce camp est génocidaire :elle consiste à rassembler en ce lieu les victimes des persécutions raciales en vue de leur « évacuation » à l’Est, c’est-à-dire leur déportation à Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Entre le 4 août 1942 et le 31 juillet 1944, 25.000 déportés juifs et 350 Tsiganes de Belgique et du nord de la France sont déportés à Auschwitz-Birkenau, qui est à la fois un centre de mise à mort et un complexe concentrationnaire. En 1945, seuls 1.252 de ces déportés raciaux ont survécu. Avec Drancy et Westerbork, la caserne Dossin constitue l’un des rouages essentiels de la mise en œuvre de la « Solution finale de la Question juive » (en Allemand, Endlösung der Judenfrage), le programme nazi d’élimination systématique et totale des Juifs d’Europe.

Bien que ce lieu ait été l’antichambre de la mort, son histoire est très mal connue. Pour la première fois, elle est étudiée dans sa globalité.

Après avoir donné un aperçu des persécutions raciales sous l’occupation allemande en Belgique et dans le nord de la France, l’auteur examine comment et dans quel contexte le camp de Malines est organisé par la Sipo-SD.

Le camp nécessite un personnel SS très restreint :une dizaine d’Allemands et quelque 80 auxiliaires flamands suffisent. Les rôles et les parcours individuels de plusieurs d’entre eux sont abordés plus en détail, afin d’en dégager des profils particuliers. Pour faire fonctionner le camp, les SS utilisent des travailleurs juifs détenus. Leurs tâches vont de l’entretien quotidien du camp à l’administration de la déportation, l’enregistrement sur les listes de transports et la spoliation. L’implication forcée des détenus dans la destruction de leur propre communauté est analysée. Le fonctionnement du SS-Sammellager est comparable à celui du système concentrationnaire. À la caserne Dossin, des détenus juifs endossent des fonctions privilégiées, similaires à celles des Kapos dans les camps de concentration, mais évidemment à des degrés de violence très éloignés.

Les SS, maîtres absolus, règnent par la terreur que les internés subissent dans tous les aspects de leurs conditions de détention :le règlement intérieur, les horaires, l’hygiène déplorable, la promiscuité dans les chambrées, l’insuffisance du ravitaillement, l’exploitation de leur travail.

L’arbitraire, renforcé par l’impunité dont jouissent les SS, débouche sur de nombreux mauvais traitements, exactions, et sévices. Certains épisodes, plus violents que d’autres, qui ont marqué l’histoire du camp, sont analysés en profondeur. Le nombre extrêmement restreint de décès survenus au camp doit cependant être souligné.

Devant tant de violences, confrontés à l’inacceptable, les internés adaptent leurs comportements aux circonstances, jouant sur un vaste registre allant de la collaboration avec leurs persécuteurs jusqu’à la résistance. Cette résistance, multiforme et diffuse, se développe à l’intérieur du camp, tout en n’aboutissant jamais à la mise sur pied d’un réseau organisé.

Mais au sein des détenus, une catégorie particulière n’aura jamais l’occasion de résister, pas plus que celle de se mêler aux internés juifs. Dès leur enfermement dans la caserne Dossin, les Tsiganes sont encore plus mal lotis que les Juifs. Leur sort, tout à fait exceptionnel et ne se confondant pas avec celui des Juifs, est présenté dans un chapitre qui leur est exclusivement consacré.

Dans la nuit du 3 au 4 septembre 1944, le SS-Sammellager est abandonné par les SS, en pleine débâcle. La plupart des Juifs qui s’y trouvent encore sont livrés à eux-mêmes. Leur « libération » ne suscite pas de grand intérêt. Pour leur part, la liesse s’éteint rapidement devant le constat de leur monde ravagé par la Shoah. Presque aucune famille n’est sortie indemne de ces deux années de déportation.

Vingt-sept transports juifs et un transport tsiganes ont été dirigés à Auschwitz-Birkenau. Trois convois exceptionnels partent aussi pour Buchenwald, Ravensbrück et Bergen-Belsen et deux petits groupes d’internés sont envoyés de Malines à Vittel.

L’histoire de chacun de ces transports permet de relater la façon dont leur effectif a été rassemblé, de suivre le sort des déportés, des évadés, des assassinés dès la descente du train, des forçats ainsi que des rares survivants.

Aussi l’auteur replace-t-il la caserne Dossin dans son contexte européen en mettant l’accent sur sa fonction génocidaire.

La mise en œuvre de la Shoah en Belgique, en France et aux Pays-Bas est présentée et une comparaison entre les camps de rassemblement de ces pays, Dossin, Drancy et Westerbork est réalisée.

Tout au long de son développement, cette thèse met l’accent sur la mission génocidaire du camp, maillon entre les SS l’Office central de Sécurité du Reich de Berlin et Auschwitz-Birkenau, le lieu de l’extermination des Juifs de l’Ouest. Le SS-Sammellager für Juden est replacé dans le contexte de la Shoah en Europe, en particulier à l’Ouest, dans le triangle formé par Westerbork, Drancy et Dossin.

Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Abstract On February 26, 1943, the first large transport of Gypsies arrived in Auschwitz. It contained about two hundred Gypsies from the Buchenwald concentration camp who were put into Birkenau II e, a new and as yet uncompleted section of the Birkenau part of Auschwitz (B II e). A second transport reached the camp on March 1, and from this date on the pace of arrivals quickened. By the end of 1943, a total of 18,738 Gypsies had been registered by name, the largest part having been delivered by the end of May. Eventually about 23,000 men, women and children were to be incar cerated for varying lengths of time in the Gypsy family camp.1