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Oś Oświęcim—People—History—Culture. The Auschwitz Memorial monthly magazine |
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Contributed by Paweł Sawicki
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Thursday, 19 March 2009 |
It is not easy to explain what ”Oś” really is. Any translation into English does not show the obvious connection with the name of the town “Oświęcim.” That is why we decided to keep the Polish word. The rest is clear: "Oświęcim, people, history and culture." Generally speaking it is a project intended to present the activities undertaken to protect the Auschwitz Memorial — the real axis of cooperation. English edition of “Oś” is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
If you want to receive the magazine in PDF version every month please write us at this e-mail address .No 18 (6/2010) In the last month we watched with fear clouded sky and the rising level of rivers around Oświęcim. For the first time in many years the Museum was closed to visitors and archives and collections had to be moved onto higher levels. The real battle with water took place at the site of Birkenau, where water from a nearby river Pławianka almost broke through the barrier. Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of people—residents, firefighters and mobilized staff of the Museum we were able to prevent the tragedy. Flood is the main theme in this issue of the magazine. We write also about the events that took place during the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazi Concentration Camps as well as the plans of a new exhibition on the fate of Polish citizens deported to Auschwitz. You will also find in the magazine a story about another seminar “Histories in biographies” at the IYMC, whose hero was a former Auschwitz prisoner Tadeusz Smreczyński, and a story about a meeting in the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer, during which for the fi rst time in the history of this institution so much attention was paid to Soviet totalitarianism.
| No 17 (5/2010) The main subject of this edition of “Oś” is the annual event summing up the work of the International Youth Meeting Center. Once again, the Center is hosting its friends and supporters, in other words, Good Spirits. At the IYMC, there was also the finale of the fifth edition of the project “Auschwitz—my land. History and remembrance years later” organized in cooperation with the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. On the pages of the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, you can read an interview with the bishop of the German diocese of Passau Wilhelm Schramm, who came to Oświęcim with a group of 27 seminarians. The Jewish Center hosted Piotr Paziński, who spoke about his book “Pensjonat.” At the Oświęcim music school there were two concerts: a performance by Grzegorz Turnau for Igorek Bartosz as well as for the second time, the French chamber orchestra Ensemble Voix Étouffées played (an interview with its director, Amaury du Closel, is published in Oś).
| No 16 (4/2010) In this edition of Oś Magazine you will find three interviews. We spoke to a French photographer Emmanuel Berry, whose works were presented at the exhibition at block 12 on the site of the former Auschwitz I camp. 42 black and white picture depict the closest neighbourhood of the Auschwitz comples. You can also read the second part of the interview with a theologian Norbert Reck as well an interview with Ewa Szprynger, the head of the Jewish Motifs Association. Accept that we publish two articles about meetings with former prisoners of Auschwitz: a report from a meeting of Auschwitz Memorial guides with Mieczysław Kita, as well as an article by a former prisoner Tadeusz Sobolewicz who wrote about his thoughts concerning meetings with German youth. We also write about another workshop at the International Youth Meeting Center "Human Rights And National Socialist Propaganda—Crimes Against Humanity, Then And Now".
| No 15 (3/2010) The main focus of this edition of Oś is a book of fairy tales. The book is extraordinary not for its content, but due to the fact that the stories were created behind the barbed wire of Auschwitz. Risking their lives, fathers—prisoners of the camp—created them for their children. The Museum has issued a reprint of all the fairy tales. Jadwiga Kulasza writes about their history in Oś. You can also find an article Dr. Adam Cyra has written about the complicated fate of children liberated from Auschwitz. n addition, this edition of Oś contains an interview with theologist Norbert Reck, who was a guest during the New Year’s retreat at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer. On the pages of the Center you can also find An Appeal to European Youth, created for the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We also continue the cycle of articles on the Jewish Center’s project “What do we need tolerence for?”.
| No 14 (2/2010) Most of this issue of Oś is dedicated to the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Inside, you will find reports of the commemorations, as well as the words of former prisoners and politicians that were said during the ceremony at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. In addition, this edition of Oś includes a report on the inauguration of the Forum Pro Publico Bono “Citizens for European Solidarity” at the International Youth Meeting Center. We also congratulate the Center for the Polish-German Youth Prize “Keep Remembrance”, which is given by the Polish-German Youth Cooperation for the workshop project Language of the perpetrators—language of the victims. In addition, on the pages of the Center for Dialogue and Prayer we recommend an extraordinarily interesting and moving history of a missionary Bartholomäa from Münster, who has searched her family in Poland for many years.
| No 13 (1/2010) On January 27, we are commemorating the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. Auschwitz has become a symbol for many religions, nationalities and cultures, as well as a reference point for many different currents of philosophy, social sciences, and global politics. The world continues to try to understand—with varying success—lessons learned from the history and experiences of Auschwitz. And most importantly, the world remembers what this means as evidenced in 2009, when 1.3 million people from all continents visited the memorial site. In the January issue of Oś we will remember the last days before the liberation. We also recommend the articles about the seminars at the International Youth Meeting Center, which was about women during the Holocaust. On the pages of the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, we are publishing reports from retreats, during which discussion revolved around praying to our God, as seen by two religions— Judaism and Christianity. Also included in Oś is a review of the play The Wardrobe, which was performed at the Jewish Center.
| No 12 (December 2009) Here is the 20th issue of the monthly Oś Oświęcim—People—History—Culture. In this issue, we cover a far more important anniversary—at the end of November, the prominent graphic artist Paweł Warchoł celebrated a quarter century as a professional artist. We also recommend our interview with conservationist Rafał Pióro, the deputy director of the Auschwitz Museum. The questions were sent in by Internet from all over the world, using the Museum’s official page on the Facebook social networking site. It was a very interesting discussion, not at all confined to conservation. Nor is this the only interview you’ll find in Oś. On the Center for Dialogue and Prayer pages, we feature a talk with Mary O’Sullivan, a Sister of Mercy from Ireland who works there. Aside from this, the 20th issue of Oś has an article on the many-layered relations between the Museum and the Town of Oświęcim, an account from the most recent session of the International Auschwitz Council, and an article by Julia Priedel on the memory of the Holocaust in Germany and the Ukraine as seen by foreign volunteers working in Oświęcim.
| No 11 (November 2009) On the platform of the railroad spur built inside the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp in the spring of 1944, German SS doctors carried out the selection of the thousands of Jews who arrived each day in boxcars. In October, a historical German freight car was placed at the ramp in Birkenau. You can read a short article about that event in Oś, and our cover shows what that place now looks like. In November’s Oś, we recommend another article sent to us by former prisoner Czesław Arkuszyński. This time, he tells about a selection in the camp hospital that he witnessed shortly after arriving at the camp. We devote a great deal of space to art this month. Agnieszka Sieradzka of the Museum Collections Department writes about two moving stories and two works of art that prisoners gave to local civilians who helped them. We also carry an article about the New Duet exhibition, a Polish-German discourse about art, and an account from a performance The Ark by the Theater of the Eighth Day from Poznań. You will also find an invitation to the “Why Do We Need Tolerance?” program, a joint project of the Jewish Center and the Association of Roma in Poland.
| No 10 (October 2009) Two Presidents of the European Parliament, the incumbent Jerzy Buzek and his predecessor Hans-Gert Poettering, were in Oświęcim in September. Oś reports on their visit to the Auschwitz site and interviews Professor Buzek on the international significance of the Museum. Even more significantly, we publish extensive excerpts from the exceptionally interesting debate held at the International Youth Meeting Center on “Europe Lost, Europe Reborn,” where Buzek and Pöttering were joined by Christoph Heubner and Marian Turski. The issue also includes articles on the Open House that marked Jewish Culture Day at the Jewish Center. We also cover the international “People and Religion” Congress for Peace. Participants visited the Auschwitz Memorial and we write about the performance of the Oświęcim Oratorio and a project connected with this composition by Janusz Kohut, a seminar at the IYMC on nursing in the Third Reich period, and the exceptional snuff-box made by Auschwitz prisoner Bronisław Czech, which literally saved someone’s life. We also recommend a report by Maciej Zabierowski of the Jewish Center about his educational trip to America.
| No 9 (September 2009) The love story of two Auschwitz prisoners, Mala Zimetbaum, a Jew, and Edward Galiński, a Pole, along with their bold escape, makes up one of the most moving chapters in the history of the camp—and also one of the most tragic. They were caught and forced to return to the camp. They were executed on August 22, 1944. Oś is publishing accounts by former prisoners who remember Mala and Edek, as well as their escape attempt. Additionally, our September issue features the full text of the homily preached by Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz outside block 11 at the Auschwitz site on the anniversary of the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe. There is also an account of a session at the International Youth Meeting House dedicated to the memory of two former Auschwitz prisoners who died last year, Henryk Mandelbaum and Stanisław Hantz, along with a refl ection on the retreat organized at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer on the anniversary of the death of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, or Edith Stein. On the Jewish Center pages we publish an article by Artur Szyndler describing a unique walk around Oświęcim with Jerzy Feiner, a native son of the city who now lives in Israel. It turns out that, after all these years, he still remembers every lane and byway, and every inhabitant of his hometown.
| No 8 (August 2009)
This year we marked the 65th anniversary of the liquidation by the Nazis of the so-called Gypsy family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. On the night of August 2/3, 1944, the Nazis murdered 2,897 men, women, and children in the gas chamber—the last of the approximately 23 thousand Roma deported to Auschwitz. In Oś you will find extensive coverage of the observances and fragments of accounts recalling the events of 65 years ago. We also draw your attention to excerpts from a lecture given at the Galicia Museum in Cracow in early July by two religious leaders who were guests of the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh, the leader of the British Sikhs, and Master Hsin Tao Shih, a Buddhist teacher and the founder of the Museum of World Religions in Taipei. In Oś, you will also find an interesting interview with participants in the Jewish Center “Bridge to History” program. This summer scholarship program brings American undergraduates and graduates to Poland, where they learn about Polish-Jewish history and work on their own educational projects.
| No 7 (July 2009)
In the July issue of Oś, we assign a great deal of space to the question of the conservation of the Auschwitz Memorial. The International Auschwitz Council met to consider the protection and use of the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi camp. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Board of Trustees also met for the first time. We especially recommend an interview with Teresa Świebocka, the deputy director of the Museum who recently retired after working here for 40 years. In this issue of Oś, we also write about the “Old Theater” building. It is finally possible to locate the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust there. In the July issue of Oś, you will also find articles about visits to Poland by American cadets as part of a program at the Jewish Center, about a seminar at the International Youth Meeting Center on the migration and integration of Poles in the 20th century, about the open house organized there by the Oświęcim Youth House of Culture, and about a stay at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer by a meditation group. | No 6 (June 2009)
“Through the line I draw, I remember the thousands of people who died there”—said in an interview Marian Kołodziej, a former Auschwitz prisoner. His exhibition Memory Photographs at the St. Maximilian Kolbe Center in Harmęże, is some of the most moving testimony to the reality of the camp. Our cover features one of his works, a self-portrait. The theme of memory recurs in many places in this issue of Oś, and above all in connection with two anniversaries. June 14 marked 69 years since the arrival in Auschwitz of the first transport of Polish political prisoners from Tarnów. Their first days in the camp are recalled through accounts from the archives. June 7 this year comes 30 years after the visit to the Auschwitz site by John Paul II. | No 5 (May 2009)
A few dozen Oświęcim residents who left their hometown at different times and for different reasons are still living in Israel. They began new lives in the new land. A New Life is also the title of an exhibition that can be seen at the Jewish Center. One of the beautiful photographs taken during the work on the exhibition graces our cover. The hero of one of the articles in the May issue of Oś is Auschwitz prisoner number 2, Otto Küsel, on the one-hundredth anniversary of his birth. Monika Bernacka recalls his story. Additionally, you will fi nd the second part of the story by former prisoner Czesław Arkuszyński in Oś, along with an interview with Dr. Igor Bartosik about his book on Henryk Mandelbaum, a report on a retreat at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, and a text about a Polish-German seminar focusing on Zofia Łyś. | No 4 (April 2009)
The articles in our April issue include a text by former Auschwitz prisoner Czesław Arkuszyński, titled “Shoes and Bread—and Soup.” These three things, in the author’s view, were the prime factors that determined a prisoner’s chances for survival or death. We also publish a full account of the ceremony of "The Good Spirits"—meeting of friends and benefactors of the International Youth Meeting Center. On the final page of Oś, you can find several exceptional works by the young participants in the 11th annual People Did This to Other People contest. We also write about the French orchestra Ensemble Voix Étouffées, who for years have been commemorating the work of composers persecuted by the German regime. | No 3 (March 2009)
In the March issue of Oś, we recommend two texts connected with art. The first of them, by the director of the State Museum in Oświęcim, Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, presents the concept of the exhibition of camp art planned for the kitchen building at the site of the Auschwitz I camp. The exhibition will focus above al on the emotions memorialized on canvas by the artists. The second text is about contemporary photography. It is an interview with Ambroise Tezenas, a Frenchman who completed part o an international project in Oświęcim. We also recommend an account of a trip to Germany organized as part of the observances of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism. Participants in international projects organized by the International Youth Meeting House took part in week-long seminars. | No 2 (February 2009)
The main article in the second English language edition of "Oś" magazine is a lecture by the director of Auschwitz Memorial Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński given for students of State Higher Vocational School in Oświęcim. The topic of the lecture was “The Future of Remembrance—A Challenge for the 21st Century”. In this issue of "Oś" one can find an interview with Fay Grajower, whose exhibition Where the Past Meets the Future iwas exhibited at the Jewish Center in Oświęcim. The installation is consists of over 100 mixed media wooden “boxes,” each standing alone as an individual painting of which together form a mosaic wall showing a revived world steeped in its past and looking towards its future.
| No 1 (January 2009)
The first issue of "Oś" brings the most important words given during the ceremonies of the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz camp. Another important topic is the seminar marking the 60th anniversary of the proclamation by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Human Rights Day which took place in Oświęcim. We also publish an interview with two highschool students from Oświęcim Kamila Nowak and Natalia Grzesiak, participants in the Oszpicin: Save it from oblivion project. One can also find information about preparation of a new project at the Auschwitz Jewish Center New Life. |
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