News
2012-01-16
The sketchbook from Auschwitz
It is the first time for the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to release the book entitled ‘Szkicownik z Auschwitz’ (Eng. ‘The Sketchbook from Auschwitz’). The book comprises drawings by an unknown prisoner, who made them at the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943.
The sketchbook was discovered in 1947 by the former camp prisoner Józef Odi, when he was standing guard at the Memorial Site at that time. Twenty-two paper sheets were found inside a bottle that was walled in the foundations of the barrack at the Birkenau camp. It is the former site of the men’s camp hospital which was founded in July 1943. Gas chambers and crematoriums nr 4 and 5 were located close by. The drawings were made primarily with a pencil.
The sketchbook is a dramatic portrait of the everyday life of prisoners and people who were shipped to death. The pictures depict shipments of Jews and how they were transported to the camp later to be slaughtered. The victims got off on the railway ramp located between Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, called Judenrampe. It operated till the Spring 1944, when the Germans launched a new ramp which was situated inside the former camp. According to the art historian Agnieszka Sieradzka, who works in the collection department of the Museum, the drawings emanate from an individual with a strong will to depict as many details as possible. For instance, arm bands worn by functionaries, number plates of trucks, carriages at the ramp, block names and numbers, and stickers on suitcases are described in great detail. The drawings prove that the author hoped that his works would be discovered one day and become a historical Shoah testimony. Each drawing presented in ‘The Sketchbook from Auschwitz’ is labeled with a short description and fragments of memories and accounts of camp survivors , stored in the Museum’s collection. Short texts explain and illustrate how fragments of individual accounts create the complete image of the camp.
Source: PAP
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