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76th anniversary of the first transport of Poles to Auschwitz – anniversary commemorations
On 14 June 2016, we will commemorate the 76th anniversary of the first transport of Poles to the German Nazi Auschwitz concentration camp created in the area of occupied Poland incorporated into the Third Reich. The anniversary day is also the National Remembrance Day of the Victims of the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps by the decision of Polish Parliament. Events commemorating the anniversary will take place on 13 and 14 June.
Program of the commemoration of 14 June in Oświęcim and Harmęże:
14:00 – Holy Mass at St. Maximilian Center in Harmęże. His Excellency the Diocesan Bishop of Bielsko-Żywiec, Roman Pindel, will celebrate the Holy Mass.
15:00 – Visitng the exhibition “Memory Clichés – Labyrinths” created by former Auschwitz prisoner no. 432 Marian Kołodziej combined with the reading of the names of the prisoners of the first transport,
16:00 – Ceremony at the memorial plaque commemorating the events of 14 June 1940 at the Witold Pilecki State School of Higher Education in Oświęcim
16.30 – Meeting with former prisoners on the site of the former Auschwitz I camp
17.00 – Paying tribute at the wall of death in the courtyard of Block 11
The events in Tarnów will take place on 13 June 2016 at the Monument in Commemoration of the I Transport of Prisoners to KL Auschwitz. Educational session will also be organized for pupils from schools in Tarnów. On June 14, flowers will be placed at the Memorial Commemorating the I Transport of Prisoners to Auschwitz at the Train Station in Tarnów.
The organizer of the commeomration events is the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and:
• Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświecim
• St. Maximilian Centre in Harmęże
• Auschwitz Jewish Centre
• Foundation of Memory Sites near Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Institute of National Remembrance, Branch in Cracow
• Diocesan Curia of Bielsko-Żywiec
• International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim
• Witold Pilecki State School of Higher Education in Oświecim
• Province of St. Anthony and blessed Jakub Strzemię of The Order Of Friars Minor Conventual (Franciscans)
• Auschwitz Memento Association
• Association of Roma in Poland
• Association for the Maintenance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site
Local government authorities:
• Mayor of the City of Oświęcim
• Mayor of the City of Tarnów
• Starost of Oświęcim County
• Mayor of the Oświęcim Commune
On 14 June 1940, the Germans deported a group of 728 Poles from the prison in Tarnów to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Among the deported prisoners were soldiers of the September campaign, members of the underground independent organizations, school pupils and students, as well as a small group of Polish Jews. They received numbers from 31 to 758 and were placed for the quarantine period in the buildings of the former Polish Tobacco Monopoly, near the site of today's Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (today, houses the State School of Higher Education in Oświęcim).
The first camp numbers were given to German criminals brought earlier by the SS men to Auschwitz from Sachsenhausen concentration camp, who assumed the position of prisoner functionaries.
Of the 728 prisoners deported on 14 June 1940 from Tarnów to Auschwitz, 298 survived, 272 died, and the fate of 158 is unknown to date.
