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86th anniversary of the deportation of the first Poles to KL Auschwitz - National Day of Remembrance

June 14, 1940, is recognized as the date marking the beginning of the operation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz.

On that day, the Germans deported a group of 728 Poles from the prison in Tarnów to Auschwitz. Among them were soldiers of the September Campaign, members of underground independence organizations, high school and university students, as well as a small group of Polish Jews. They were assigned camp numbers from 31 to 758.

The commemoration of the 86th anniversary of this event was held under the Honorary Patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki. By decision of the Polish Parliament, June 14 is observed as the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of German Nazi Concentration Camps and Extermination Camps.

The commemorative events held at the Memorial were attended by 13 Auschwitz Survivors, Minister of Culture and National Heritage Marta Cienkowska, as well as representatives of the President of the Republic of Poland, national and local authorities, the diplomatic corps, churches and religious communities, the Roma community, state institutions, associations and foundations, delegations of the organisers of the commemoration event, numerous institutions and civil society organisations, as well as all those wishing to honour the memory of the victims of the German Nazis.

In her address, Minister Marta Cienkowska said: “History shows that great tragedies do not begin with camps, barbed wire, or gas chambers. They begin much earlier. They begin with words that divide people into ‘us’ and ‘them’. With acceptance of the language of contempt. With indifference to the exclusion of others. With the belief that someone else’s dignity may be less important than our own,” she said.

“That is precisely why remembrance remains a contemporary task. Not in order to compare the present with the past, but so that we do not lose the ability to recognize boundaries that must never be crossed. And I believe that remembrance is one of the foundations of a responsible society,” added Minister Marta Cienkowska.

“Today, we bow our heads before all the victims of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. The fullest expression of respect for the victims is not merely words of remembrance. It is a world in which one person is capable of standing up for another, a world in which no one remains indifferent to hatred. Because remembrance is important. But perhaps what matters even more is simply what we do with that remembrance,” she emphasized.

A letter addressed to the participants in the commemoration by the President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, was read by Presidential Adviser Beata Kempa.

The President wrote: “The trauma is still present not only in the memory of Survivors and witnesses, but also in subsequent generations of Poles. History textbooks, archives, museums and memorial sites, diaries and novels, films, accounts by older relatives, family chronicles and photograph albums, and inscriptions on graves are the principal, though not the only, sources of knowledge. We must carry the burden of this knowledge into the future. It is knowledge of inhuman ruthlessness and cruelty. Knowledge of a true industry of extermination organized on Polish soil by the German occupiers.”

“That is why, pursuant to a resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, each year we observe the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of German Nazi Concentration Camps and Extermination Camps. In this way, we fulfill the sacred duty of honoring our murdered compatriots and fellow citizens and of recalling the truth about the perpetrators of these crimes and the responsibility for them. We also call upon the world never to forget the martyrdom of those who were murdered and never again to disregard attempts to spread ideologies and provoke wars driven by hatred, chauvinistic contempt, and aggressive imperial militarism,” wrote President Karol Nawrocki.

The Polish national anthem was played in front of Block 11. At the Death Wall in the courtyard of Block 11, participants in the commemoration laid wreaths and candles in memory of all the victims of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz.

Minister Marta Cienkowska and Bishop Roman Pindel also visited the site where the first conserved postwar memorial markers have been placed. Until now, they had been located on authentic post-camp buildings or within the historic space of the former camp. The items placed there are a stone from Jerusalem, left at the Museum in 1992 by Israeli President Chaim Herzog, which had stood in front of Block 27, as well as two plaques from the mid-1990s from the wall of Block 15, dedicated to scouts imprisoned in Auschwitz and members of the Home Army active in the area around the camp. All remaining plaques previously placed on historic structures at the Memorial are expected to be moved to the new location later this year.

On 14 June, wreaths were also laid at the plaque commemorating the first transport on the building of the former Polish Tobacco Monopoly, near the grounds of today’s Auschwitz Museum. It was there that, on 14 June 1940, the SS placed the prisoners for a period of quarantine. Today, the building houses the Witold Pilecki State University of Małopolska.

The official commemorations concluded at the St Maximilian Centre in Harmęże, where the exhibition “Cliches of Memory. Labyrinths” by Marian Kołodziej, former prisoner no. 423 from the first transport, is presented. A Mass was celebrated there, presided over by Bishop Roman Pindel, Ordinary of the Bielsko-Żywiec Diocese.

Organizer of the commemoration event:

• Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Coorganizers:

• St. Maximilian Center in Harmęże
• Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki State University of Małopolska in Oświęcim

with

• Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation
• Auschwitz Memento Association
• Center of Roma History and Culture
• Bielsko-Żywiec Diocesan Curia
• Castle Museum in Oświęcim
• Department of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in Kraków
• Foundation for International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim
• Foundation for the Memory of Auschwitz-Birkenau Victims • Foundation of Memory Sites Near Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Foundation Monument-Hospice for the Town of Oświęcim
• Jewish Center in Oświęcim
• Kraków Foundation Center for Information, Meeting, Dialogue, Education and Prayer in Oświęcim
• movart Foundation
• the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression
• the town of Oświęcim
• Oświęcim commune
• Oświęcim County Office
• Province of the St. Anthony of Padua and Blessed Jakub Strzemię of the Order of Friars
• Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents
• Roma Association in Poland
• Society for the Protection of Oświęcim (TOnO)
• the town of Tarnów