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Caricaturist in Auschwitz
A work by Auschwitz prisoner Tadeusz Myszkowski is the latest addition to the Museum art collection. It is a caricature of another prisoner, Jan Kowalski, camp number 99. Like Myszkowski, Kowalski came from Zakopane, and the two were related. The Germans arrested the two men in 1939 over caricatures of Hitler and Mussolini—Myszkowski for drawing them, and Kowalski for displaying them in public in the Empire café.
Myszkowski was sent to Auschwitz on in the first transport of Polish political prisoners on June 14, 1940, and was camp number 593.
His fellow prisoners valued Myszkowski for his sense of humor, psychological resilience, and resourcefulness. He helped set up the camp sculpture studio, a haven for such artists as Bronisław Czech, Xawery Dunikowski, the Kupiec brothers, Wincenty Gawron, and the famous Captain Witold Pilecki (in Auschwitz under the name Tomasz Serafiński). Myszkowski also worked in the carpentry shop and the photographic studio. His status as an artisan and employee of the SS photography office gave him relatively free access to artists’ supplies. Everywhere he worked, he covertly drew portraits of his fellow prisoners. He also made paintings, engravings, and carvings on orders from the SS.
The reverse of the drawing recently acquired by the Museum is an interesting scene with a connection to Zakopane. It is a portrait of Auguste Piccard making a balloon ascent. The accompanying symbols—a Polish flag, the Zygmunt column, and numerous stars—make it clear, however, that this is not a depiction of Piccard’s famous 1931 stratospheric ascent. It is rather an allusion to the attempt at a stratospheric ascent from Zakopane by the balloon known as The Polish Star. The first, unsuccessful attempt in 1938 was a great local event. Another much-awaited attempt was scheduled for September 1939; the start of World War II meant that it never occurred.
Myszkowski joined the resistance movement inside the camp. He belonged to the Military Organization Union, set up by Pilecki to prepare an armed mutiny.
The fact that political caricatures led to his arrest did not deter Myszkowski from carrying on with the genre. He drew caricatures of his fellow prisoners, prisoner functionaries, and SS men. He also gave his fellow prisoners cards connected with various occasions; they reveal a knack for picking out individual traits and presenting them in an amusing way. Caricatures had a special function in the camp. They had a therapeutic role, warding off depression, soothing the aching for freedom, and also expressing self-defense and defiance of the cruel realities of Auschwitz.
After the war, Myszkowski was one of the former Auschwitz prisoners who set up the future Museum. He tracked down the art works made in the camp by prisoners that formed the basis of the art collection. In the first years after the war, he also drew numerous caricatures of the SS men and his fellow prisoners. Today, these drawings are an important form of historical documentation, supplementing the written accounts and memoirs.
