News
Monograph on the History of Auschwitz in French
The five-volume monograph Auschwitz 1940-1945: Central Issues in the History of the Camp has come out in French. A translation of the Polish edition that appeared in 1995 with Wacław Długoborski and Franciszek Piper as editors, it has been updated to reflect the latest historical findings. At 2,167 pages, the new edition is the most extensive collection to date of scholarly studies describing the origins and functioning of the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz.
The monograph presents the history of the camp against the broad background of the overall policy of the Third Reich and its allies, depicting deportation to Auschwitz from various countries including France, the story of the Holocaust, and the responsibility shared by many German and collaborating institutions for the fate of the victims. It also offers an approach to the issue of the identity of the members of the SS garrison.
“A big challenge in the case of this edition was the standardization of vocabulary and choosing the corresponding names in French for the German camp nomenclature and the institutions created by the SS. Another problem was translating the complicated system of the names used in camp SS administration. In most cases these are German neologisms that cannot be translated literally into any language. For this reason, volume five contains a very rich glossary of camp expressions and terminology,” said Dorota Ryszka of the Museum publishing department, who coordinated the French edition.
Aside from the new historical material, the publication also contains an updated bibliography broadened to include more memoirs and accounts by eyewitnesses deported from France, as well as work by French researchers.
The individual volumes deal with the following issues:
- vol. 1: The construction and organization of the camp (La construction et l’ organisation du camp)
- vol. II: Prisoners—their life and work (Les détenus – la vie et le travail)
- vol. III: Extermination (L’ extermination)
- vol. IV: The resistance movement (La résistance)
- vol. V: Epilogue (the evacuation and liberation of the camp - Épilogue)
Translation into French was made possible by the financial support of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah. Printing was underwritten by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation. The monograph is available at sales outlets on the Museum grounds and in the internet bookstore (in English, Polish, German and French).
Sixty-three thousand people from France visited the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum in 2010.
Between 310,000 and 315,000 Jews lived in occupied France and Vichy France. About 75,000 Jews were deported from France to death camps, with 69,255 being sent to Auschwitz. Of this number, 41,805 people were murdered in the gas chambers immediately after selection, and 27,220 people were registered in the camp.
