TURPOL

02/06/2025

1 June 1942* | Karl Johann Friedrich Lasch, N**i party and SA member, economist, and lawyer, the former governor of the Radom and Galician districts in the General Government, and brother-in-law of General Governor Hans Frank, died (most probably) in Auschwitz.

In January 1942, he was arrested on charges of large-scale embezzlement and appropriation of Jewish property, after which he was brought before a special court in Breslau (Wrocław). The N**i authorities decided that the proceedings, to avoid scandal, would not end with a conviction.

He was either killed in Breslau or transferred to Auschwitz where he was either forced to die by su***de (as stated on the death certificate issued in the camp) or was shot.

*The date of his death is uncertain, as the death certificate was issued only on 9 October.

21/03/2025

18 March 1941 | The first message sent from by the resistance group of Witold Pilecki (📷) reached the Polish government-in-exile in London. It described conditions in the camp. The message was sent in Oct 1940 through Aleksander Wielopolski who was released from the camp.

See our online lesson about resistance activity at the German camp: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_16_ruch_oporu/&
online exhibition about Polish military resistance in the camp: https://google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/gQhxPmoo?hl=en

12/09/2024

ca. 9 September 1942 | Female prisoner functionaries together with SS guards battered 90 French Jewish women to death at the sub-camp of Auschwitz in Budy, which was the penal company for women.

Today we know that the massacre in Budy took place not in October but before 10 September 1942. On that day the commandant of Auschwitz reported to the WVHA with the heading "secret," regarding an "incident" (Vorfall) in the penal company in the village of Bor-Budy. On 16 September, SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl demanded a detailed report on the matter and that the interrogation protocols be sent, as he intended to make a report to the SS Reichsführer.

Listen to a podcast where the details of this research is described: "On Auschwitz": https://youtu.be/_7Pja9KjL60

The penal company for women prisoners in Budy, about 7 km. from Oświęcim, was established in June 1942 in reprisal for an escape from Auschwitz by a Polish woman prisoner. 400 women of various ethnic backgrounds were imprisoned in Budy. Their living conditions were lamentable, and the Germans forced them to perform backbreaking labor. German women criminals and prostitutes made up the cadre in charge of the penal company.

The massacre of the French Jewish women prisoners took place in early September. Using clubs, hatchets, and rifle butts—and throwing some of their victims from the windows in the loft of the building—female prisoner functionaries and SS guards butchered 90 women.

In the afternoon, SS men from the SS reconnaissance service (Erkennungsdienst) and SS orderlies arrived at the Strafkompanie in Budy. The reconnaissance service photographed the pile of lying corpses of female prisoners and the corpses of female prisoners hanging on the wires of the fence, who were trying to escape the massacre. The SS orderlies, on the other hand, were killing wounded prisoners by dragging individuals into a room given to them and killing them with phenol injections

The camp administration investigated the incident, but failed to discover the cause. Commandant Rudolf Höss defined the massacre as “a revolt instigated by prisoners who used stones and clubs in an attempt to terrorize the capo and make their way out of the camp.”

SS man Pery Broad claimed that a German woman noticed a stone in the hand of Jewish woman returning from the toilet to the dormitory room. Broad felt that this was a “hysterical illusion.” Nevertheless, the German woman called for help and shouted that the Jewish woman had struck her. At that point, the female supervisors and guards began slaughtering the French Jews.

As an aftermath, all the women who remained alive after being injured in the massacre were killed. SS also killed six German women functionaries who had taken part in the slaughter.

09/09/2024

📖 Testimonies from Auschwitz

The ten publications that make up this bibliophile edition are ten varying perspective views of Auschwitz. The authors differ in all aspects: age, and consequently wealth of experience, as well as intellectual formation, nationality and above all fate in the camp.

Amongst them are Jews condemned to extermination and those miraculously saved, such as: Halina Birenbaum, Primo Levi, Miklós Nyiszli or Elie Wiesel, as well as non-Jews, arrested primarily for activities in the resistance movement, such as: Charlotte Delbo, Adolf Gawalewicz, Wiesław Kielar, Hermann Langbein and Seweryna Szmaglewska. The whole is complemented by the memories of the Polish Catholic priest, Adam Ziemba.

All these stories of specific individuals perfectly show the complexity of the Auschwitz history: as the Holocaust centre of European Jews, but also a concentration camp and place where the prisoners fought persistently in various ways not only for survival but also for preserving human dignity.

These books are like pieces of a puzzle, each of which adds important information to the overall look. A puzzle that was never completed…

Authors and titles:
* Halina Birenbaum, Hope is the Last to Die
* Charlotte Delbo, None of Us Will Return
* Adolf Gawalewicz, Reflections in the Gas Chamber’s Waiting Room: From the Memoirs of a Muselmann
* Wiesław Kielar, A**s Mundi Five Years in Auschwitz
* Hermann Langbein, People in Auschwitz
* Primo Levi, If this is a Man
* Miklós Nyiszli, I Was Doctor Mengele’s Assistant
* Seweryna Szmaglewska, Smoke over Birkenau
* Elie Wiesel, Night
* Adam Ziemba, A Piece of Bread

Buy the set: https://books.auschwitz.org/en_US/p/Testimonies-from-Auschwitz/711

15/08/2024

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06/07/2024

The site of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau visible from the main guard tower. The area between sectors BI and BII from May 1944 became the unloading platform. Jews deported to Auschwitz went there through the process of selection. SS doctors determined the fate of people - all who did not seem fit to work were murdered in gas chambers.

(Photo: )

02/07/2024

A small washroom for prisoners inside a brick barracks at Auschwitz II-Birkenau site.

For two years these barracks lacked any sanitary facilities. Prisoners used washrooms and latrines that were located at a distance from their barracks. Yet, in 1944 the SS authorities began installation of small washrooms inside those buildings.

(Photo: )

25/05/2024

09/05/2024

Concentration camp clothing was made of denim in grey-blue stripes. The men received: shirts, long johns, tunics, trousers, caps and clogs completely out of wood or wood with a leather top. The women received: blouses, skirts, used underwear, tunics, headscarves and clogs. Coats were issued in winter, sewn out of a thicker material which nevertheless failed to protect prisoners form the cold.

That is why, despite the danger of being punished, prisoners would frequently put pieces of newspaper or various types of material under their tunics. The lack of appropriate clothing, especially in winter, malnourishment and work in difficult conditions led to infections that resulted in the deaths of many prisoners.

(Photo: )

06/05/2024

6. mai var Holocaust-dagen

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Når du besøker den tidligere nazistiske dødsleiren sammen med oss, vil du lære historien til dette stedet, historien til menneskene som var her, og ikke lenger er blandt oss.
Vi vil ikke forklare for dere hvorfor mennesker gjorde dette mot andre mennesker, for vi forstår det ikke alene. Men det er alles plikt å vite det, for ondskapen kommer ikke plutselig, og Auschwitz kom ikke ut av ingenting.

Er du i ferd med å planlegge en tur? Ta kontakt med oss.

01/05/2024

Hva er stillaset rundt tårnet på Mariakirken? Horntårnet blir vedlikeholdt! Det ble sist rengjort i 1999, så det var på tide å gjøre det igjen. Tårnet rengjøres ved hjelp av en spesiell metode med… laser! Dette sikrer at tårnet ikke blir skadet, slik det kan bli hvis det vaskes med damp eller sand. Takket være laserne er det heller ikke noe støv i området. Til tross for restaureringsarbeidet kan kirken fortsatt besøkes, og vi anbefaler det!

01/05/2024

The film „Places of Memory” focuses on the most symbolic places at the former German N**i camp Auschwitz.

Their stories are told thanks to fragments of accounts of Survivors, archival documents, and works of camp art.

Watch: https://youtu.be/8K5hPQnKgx4

You can also subscribe to our channel: https://youtube.com/