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Kazimierz Smoleń, a former Auschwitz prisoner and Director of the Auschwitz Museum, passes away

Kazimierz Smoleń, a former prisoner of German concentration camps, co-founder and Director of the State Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, died in Oświęcim last Friday. His death coincided with the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. He was ninety-one years old.

Kazimierz Smoleń was born on April 19th, 1920, in Chorzów. He finished his elementary education and later completed the Odrowążów State Senior and Junior High School in Chorzów. Towards the end of December 1939, Kazimierz Smoleń became engaged in conspiratorial activities of the Polish Partisan Organization (POP), which led to his arrest by the Gestapo in April 1940, when he was imprisoned in the police jail in Chorzow. Afterwards, he was taken to the transitory prison in Sosnowiec. From there, on July 6th 1940, he was shipped to KL Auschwitz, where he was labeled with number 1327. On January 18th, 1945, he was evacuated to the Mauthausen concentration camp. He was also prisoner in Melk and Ebensee subcamps, where, on May 6th, 1945, he was liberated by American soldiers. Despite many dramatic moments in his life, he took up studies at the Department of Law at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL).

Unlike many other Auschwitz prisoners, Kazmierz Smoleń did not cease having an interest in the history of the former camp. In 1955, he was appointed Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, holding this position for thirty-five years until he retired. He wrote many movie screenplays and exhibition narrations. Before he became Director of the Museum, in February 1955, he had taken part in designing works of the permanent exhibition of the Auschwitz Museum. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have seen this exhibition and can continue to view it today.

Over the course of the past years, Kazimierz Smoleń organized numerous meetings with Polish and German youth, delivering public lectures as a witness of history, always capturing the attention of the young audience. In 2004, he was awarded the Commander’s Cross with the Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Source:

• Nasz Dziennik daily, P. Bibik, dr A. Cyra, Wspomnienie o Kazimierzu Smoleniu (Jan. 31, 2012)

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