Seventy-five years ago, the Soviet Army marched into Poland and liberated the Auschwitz death camp, where over a million Jews and other minorities were killed. As they approached, tens of thousands of prisoners were evacuated, while others were shot. Only around 9,000 sick and starving inmates remained to be found by the Red Army. Most of the survivors scattered as soon as they were physically able. Today the site is a museum and memorial, but it’s not exactly as it was. Before liberation, the staff destroyed the crematoria and as much evidence of their crimes as they could. After liberation, it was used as a POW camp, which meant alterations. Some of the most distasteful facilities were dismantled by authorities, and locals looted the camp for building supplies and any overlooked valuables.
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Over the months that followed the camps’ liberation, many former prisoners returned seeking family members and friends. And a small group of survivors came back to stay.
“The earliest stewards of the site were former prisoners,” explains Huener. In his book Auschwitz, Poland, and the Politics of Commemoration, 1945-1979, Huener tells the story of how the site went from operational death camp to memorial. Most of the cadre of men were Polish political prisoners, and none of them had experience with museums or historic preservation. But even during their imprisonments, they had decided Auschwitz should be preserved.
“We did not know if we would survive, but one did speak of a memorial site,” wrote Kazimierz Smoleń, an Auschwitz survivor who later became the memorial site’s director. “One just did not know what form it would take.”
They had no expertise in historical preservation, but they were determined to keep Auschwitz as a cemetery, evidence repository, and a physical testament to the phrase “never forget.” Read what happened to Auschwitz after the war at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Bundesarchiv, B 285 Bild-04413 / Stanislaw Mucha / CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Source: neatorama