Pictures Related to Auschwitz Used on our Site with Explanation

Built in March 1942, the bathhouse had three heat chimneys, cisterns for water, showers and sewerage. Over there, SS doctors selected sick prisoners considered incapable of work to be killed in gas chambers.

More history, survivor accounts

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An unusual team for a road roller

Jan Baraś-Komski was born in 1915 in Bircza. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1940 he was arrested while attempting to reach the Polish army. Soon after, he was in the first transport of Polish political prisoners to Auschwitz (camp number 564).

In the camp, he worked on clearing the area and building the fence. He then drew up plans and maps of the camp area and made sketches. In 1941, he was incarcerated in Block 11 for smuggling food and medicine, and then sent to the penal unit. There, his artistic talent was spotted and he got into the employment office, where he worked until he escaped.

In 1942, Komski with a few inmates left the camp by horse-drawn carriage, taking some of the documents from the office with them. When in January 1943 he tried to get through to Warsaw, he was arrested, sent to Montelupich prison, where some identity irregularities were discovered.

Komski was sent again to Auschwitz in October 1943, where he was registered under the false name of Jan Nosek (camp number 152 884). Fortunately, only his camp friends recognized him. A few weeks later he volunteered to be transported to KL Buchenwald. There, he was diagnosed with eczema, and sent to a prison in Kraków, where an investigation into his false identity began. He was beaten and tortured.

In mid-1944 he was registered at Gross-Rosen concentration camp under his real name. In 1945, he was taken to other camps and was liberated in April.

After the war, Komski emigrated to the USA, where he lived for the rest of his life. Among other things, he worked as an illustrator for The Washington Post. He died in 2002 in Arlington. Source: auschwitz.org

Roll-call 1941/1942

Wincenty Gawron was born in 1908 in Stara Wieś. He studied arts in Lwów, Kraków and Warszawa. After the outbreak of World War II, he joined a secret military organization. He was arrested in 1941 and brought to Auschwitz.

In the camp, he was involved in designing objects made in the camp’s carving shop. He painted and drew portraits and landscapes commissioned by SS men, but also forbidden works depicting the tragic reality of the camp, as well as caricatures ridiculing the SS crew. He befriended Witold Pilecki who helped him escape in May 1942. He managed to carry information collected by the camp resistance to Warszawa.

Gawron rejoined the Home Army and ended up in a transit camp in Pruszków, from which he escaped. He was arrested by the NKVD, but managed to escape. He made his way to Italy to join the Second Polish Corps, where he met Witold Pilecki again. After the demobilisation, Gawron went into exile and settled permanently in USA, where he worked as a graphic artist. He died in 1991. Source: auschwitz.org

Zigeuner-Mischling aus Deutschland

Dina Gottliebová-Babbitt was born to a Jewish family in 1923 in Brno. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 1942, she and her mother were arrested and sent to the Theresienstadt camp and a year later to Auschwitz.

In the camp, she drew portraits of Romani inmates for the infamous Josef Mengele. After the liberation she emigrated to California where she died in 2009. Source: wikipedia.org

Inside of a male barrack in Birkenau

Work – sorting out shoes

Mieczysław Kościelniak, born in 1912 in Kalisz, was a Polish painter, graphic designer, and draftsman. Already a prominent artist, he was arrested in 1941 and sent to the camp (number 15261).

At Auschwitz, he drew about 300 paintings depicting the everyday life of prisoners. In May 1945, he was liberated by the 3rd Armored Cavalry Group at the Ebensee Concentration Camp in Austria. He painted a number of portraits of U.S. military personnel at that time. After the war, Kościelniak moved to Warszawa, then to Ustka and finally to Słupsk, where he died in 1993. Source: wikipedia.org

Digging foundations for Block 15

Selection in the bathhouse

Władysław Siwek was born in 1907 in Niepołomice. He worked in the State Railways while also studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1940 he was arrested, placed in the Montelupich Prison and in October sent to Auschwitz (camp number 5826).

In the camp, he painted signboards including warning signs. After he painted a portrait of an SS officer, he began to receive orders from other German officers for portraits and landscapes. He privately made portraits of more than 2000 of his fellow prisoners. In October 1944, Siwek was moved to Sachsenhausen and was liberated by Allied forces in May 1945.

After the war, Siwek produced paintings of life in the concentration camps, several of which are on display in Block 6. Later, he was employed by the Museum, first as a head of education department (1949-1952), and then as director (1952-1953). He died in Warszawa in 1983. Source: wikipedia.org

Penal unit at work

On the way to work

Janina Tollik was born in 1910 in Janów. Between 1931 and 1935 she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. After the outbreak of war she worked as a nurse and was also employed as an office and technical assistant at the Water Management Office in Kraków. There she set up a secret information and intelligence cell. The Gestapo arrested her in May 1941. After a cruel investigation she was imprisoned at Auschwitz as a political prisoner in April 1942.

In the camp, Janina Tollik worked in many kommandos, including the penal unit, where she began to sketch various scenes of the camp life. In October 1944, she was sent to Flossenbürg concentration camp in Bavaria. There she lived to see liberation. She returned to Poland in 1949 and died in Warszawa in 1994. Source: auschwitz.org