News
New English language edition of Oś — the Auschwitz Memorial magazine
On the platform of the railroad spur built inside the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp in the spring of 1944, German SS doctors carried out the selection of the thousands of Jews who arrived each day in boxcars. Previously, trains stopped at the socalled Altejudenrampe located at the old freight station between the two camps. Since 2005, two original train cars at the old ramp, or unloading platform, have served as reminders of the tragedy of deportation. In October, a historical German freight car was placed at the ramp in Birkenau. You can read a short article about that event in Oś, and our cover shows what that place now looks like.
In November’s Oś, we recommend another article sent to us by former prisoner Czesław Arkuszyński. This time, he tells about a selection in the camp hospital that he witnessed shortly after arriving at the camp. We dare to hope that this will be far from Czesław Arkuszyński’s last contribution.
We devote a great deal of space to art this month. Agnieszka Sieradzka of the Museum Collections Department writes about two moving stories and two works of art that prisoners gave to local civilians who helped them. We also carry an article about the New Duet exhibition, a Polish-German discourse about art, and an account from a performance The Ark by the Theater of the Eighth Day from Poznań. We also draw your particular attention to an article about a Polish-German-Ukrainian project on patterns of memory before and after 1989 at the IYMC.
You will also find two invitations in Oś, to an Advent retreat at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, and to the “Why Do We Need Tolerance?” program, a joint project of the Jewish Center and the Association of Roma in Poland.
