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'Traces of Them Remain...' – Inscriptions from the Block of Death on exhibition in the Google Cultural Institute
“Traces of The Remain..." is the title of the new exhibition of the Auschwitz Museum available in the Google Cultural Institute. It presents extremely moving traces left by prisoners of Auschwitz - inscriptions carved in the Block of Death and prison on the premises of the Auschwitz I camp. The author of the exhibition prepared by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust is dr Adam Cyra, a historian at the Museum’s Research Centre.
Block 11 in Auschwitz I served as a camp prison. Men and women, suspected among others of involvement in the resistance movement, contacts with civilians or attempt to escape were imprisoned in its basements. The cells also served as a jail for prisoners sentenced to death by starvation in retaliation for the escape of a fellow prisoner.
In addition, the ground floor and first floor of the block served at different periods, as a jail for prisoners of the penal company, or the so-called police prisoners, pending judgment of the summary court. Executions by firing squad were carried out in the courtyard of block 11, separated from the rest of the camp by a wall. Punishment by whipping post and flogging were also carried out in the block and courtyard.
'The inscriptions on the walls, doors, window seals and ceiling beams of Block 11 are often the only traces left after the tragic fate of the prisoners deported to Auschwitz. There are a few hundred of such inscriptions, and the last one was carved three weeks before the liberation of Auschwitz. For several dozen of the inscriptions, we managed to identify their authors, in most cases; however, it was impossible,' writes dr Adam Cyra.
'These inscriptions, which were very often their last farewell to the world, usually evidence the exceptional courage, great fortitude and love of their motherland. They were made with various tools such as a hairpin, pencil, crayon, or even fingernail,' we read.
A majority of the prisoners and police prisoners jailed in Block 11, sent to the block by the Political Division of the camp were Poles. Thus, the preserved inscription are almost entirely in the Polish language.
The internet exhibition presents several dozen biograms of prisoners - authors of the inscriptions, illustrated with old pre-war photographs. In a few cases, the secret letters sent by the arrested persons to their families were also preserved. They contained their last words of farewell.
“My dear Wife and my dearest daughter Krysia. Your beloved father and guardian has been condemned to death on 31/10 and will die completely innocent. […] my God be with you. My dear wife, raise our Krysia so the Lord God does not forsake her and You [...] May God watch over you, and pray for my soul. Cupiał Jan” – wrote to his wife, Stefanie Jan Cupiał, who was arrested by the Gestapo for underground activity in the Home Army in June 1944.
After a short stay in the prison in Mysłowice, he was transported to Auschwitz and placed in block 11 as Polizeihäftlinga - i.e., a police prisoner. On 31 October 1944, the Court presided over by the head of the Katowice Gestapo Johannes Thümmler sentenced dozens of police prisoners to death.
On the ceiling of one of the rooms on the first floor of block 11, Jan Cupiał left the inscription: “Cupiał Jan from Trzebinia, was sentenced to death on 31 October 1944. Please inform the Family"
Bronisław Goliński, along with a group of prisoners was convicted on 31 October 1944, by summary court to the death penalty. The following day, 1 November, the convicts were executed in one of the crematoria in Birkenau. Before his death, he managed to carve an inscription on the ceiling in the hall on the ground floor of block 11 “He follows in the footsteps of the Father – Goliński Bronisław, born 1.07.1925 in Cieszyn, to the furnace for Poland - 31.10.1944".
About the project Google Cultural Institute
The Auschwitz Memorial shares virtual exhibitions on the Google Cultural Institute platform. The aim of the project involving institutions from all over the world is to present the various aspects of the history of the twentieth century using digitized archives: documents, letters, manuscripts, photos, footage and eyewitness accounts.
