News
A youth lost behind the barbed wire
The Museum has published the memoirs of Józef Matynia, a former Auschwitz prisoner, radio journalist, editor, and historian. The memoirs titled Młodość utracona za drutami (A youth lost behind the barbed wire) consist of five chapters describing his arrest by the Germans for underground activity and imprisonment in Pułtusk and Działdowo, the years he spent in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, the forced evacuation from Buchenwald, and liberation in Dachau.
Józef Matynia was able to survive the difficult times in Auschwitz mainly thanks to his strong character, support from his colleagues, good luck (he was assigned for a time to a so-called “good kommando,” the Tierpflegerkommando that looked after horses), and his love for a young Ukrainian woman. Despite many moments of doubt, he managed to endure. His memoirs are new, important, and highly personal testimony to the tragedy that left its mark on his whole life yet at the same time—thanks to the fact that he survived—gave him strength and hope for the future.
The book, in Polish, is available for purchase at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum internet bookstore.
Józef Matynia was born in 1919. Arrested by the Gestapo in November 1940, he was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp in March 1941. In March 1943, he was transferred to the Buchenwald camp. He was liberated at the Dachau camp in April 1945.
After the war he earned a doctorate in the humanities. He worked at Polish Radio in Gdańsk and Poznań for many years. He recorded more than 240 historical and documentary programs. He is also the author of some 50 articles and lectures on historical subjects and the books On the combat trail and Martyrdom in Gdańsk province.
He served for many years as an activist in veterans’ organizations and was also a cofounder of the Auschwitz Preservation Society. He has won numerous journalism awards and is the recipient of many honorary diplomas and medals including the Cross of Service, awarded by the president of Germany for his work for the cause of Polish-German reconciliation.
Józef Matynia. Młodość utracona za drutami (A youth lost behind the barbed wire)
Publisher: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 2011
108 p., 12 x 19 cm, soft cover
ISBN: 978-83-7704-030-0
