News
Auschwitz Museum publications available in the form of e-books
Almost 70 titles published by the Auschwitz Museum are now available as e-books. These include the most popular ones, such as memoirs of witnesses, as well as popular science studies and educational books.
'The Memorial cannot be silent, as this would be a victory for the Third Reich. The words of the victims are our fullest voice. Today, we also offer our numerous, multilingual publications in the form of e-books. I believe that in doing so we will reach out to all people for whom memory, even the most difficult memory, is the most lasting foundation of the post-war world,' said Auschwitz Museum Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński.
The electronic publications include three memoir books written by Auschwitz survivors: Bogdan Bartnikowski’s “Childhood Behind Barbed Wire”, Halina Birenbaum’s “Hope is the Last to Die”, and Helena Dunicz-Niwińska’s “One of the Girls in the Band”.
Bogdan Bartnikowski was deported to Auschwitz as a twelve-year-old after the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. In his short stories, he presented a shocking image of the camp from a child’s perspective. Halina Birenbaum was also sent to Auschwitz in 1943 from the Warsaw Ghetto via Majdanek. As a 14-year-old girl, she had to fight every day for survival, subjected to selections and harassment. Helena Dunicz Niwińska, on the other hand, imprisoned in Auschwitz since 1943, survived thanks to her ability to play the violin, which she did in the camp orchestra.
'E-books with these memories are available in several language versions: Polish, English, German, Spanish and Russian,' said Museum Publishing House Manager Jadwiga Pinderska-Lech.
An extremely moving testimony to the tragedy of Auschwitz is the publication with the manuscripts of a member of the Sonderkommando Załmen Gradowski entitled “From the Heart of Hell”. 'In order to save the memory of his loved ones, murdered in Auschwitz, and to inform the world about the Shoah, Załmen Gradowski, one of the prisoners forced to work in the crematoria and gas chambers, made notes in the camp. These texts are a shocking literary record of the tragedy. Their language is very emotional, in many places, even poetic. Paradoxically, a writer was born in the hell of Auschwitz,' added Pinderska-Lech.
The Museum’s e-books also include popular science publications. One significant title is “Auschwitz from A to Z. An illustrated history of the camp” in Polish and English.
'It is an encyclopaedic edited and richly illustrated compendium of knowledge on the history of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. Knowledge about the camp based on the latest research has been presented in over 300 articles. The results of the work of historians from the Museum Research Centre can also be found in subsequent volumes of “Auschwitz Studies,' said the head of the Publishing House.
The factual knowledge is complemented by the educational series “Voices of Memory”. In addition to scientific articles discussing a given subject in detail, each of the 13 volumes is devoted to one of the many issues of the complicated history of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp and contains a selection of source materials, excerpts from accounts, photographs and scans of archival documents, which will facilitate teachers’ use of the material contained in the book during school lessons.
“The More I Know the Less I Understand” is a joint publication of International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, which includes selected essays of students who participated in three editions of the research seminar “Witnessing Auschwitz – Conflicting Stories and Memories” organised by the Auschwitz Memorial.
E-books of the Auschwitz Museum can be purchased at publio.pl. Links to individual titles are available in the Museum’s online bookstore: ksiegarnia.auschwitz.org