News
Online educational session 'Soldiers of the Home Army as Prisoners of KL Auschwitz' - 24 February
'Soldiers of the Home Army as Prisoners of KL Auschwitz' is the tile of educational session of the Museum marking the 80th anniversary of the creation of the Home Army. It will be held online on 24 February 2022 and will be simultaneously translated into English.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the transformation of the underground Union of Armed Struggle operating in occupied Poland into the Home Army that contributed immensely to the fight for the country's freedom.
During the session, Dr. Marek Lasota, director of the Home Army Museum in Cracow, will give a lecture on the armed forces of the Polish Underground State and Dr. Adam Cyra of the Auschwitz Museum Research Center will talk about selected prisoners who were members of the Union of Armed Struggle/Home Army. In turn, Marcin Dziubek will discuss Oświęcim residents who fought in the Home Army unit called "Sosienki" around the Auschwitz camp complex that provided aid to the prisoners.
Participation in the session is free. Applications must be submitted using the online form by 22 February 2022. After this date, you will receive a message with a link to participate in the meeting.
SESSION PROGRAMME
17.00-17.05
Inauguration of the session
Andrzej Kacorzyk - Director of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust (ICEAH)
Adelina Hetnar-Michaldo - Head of Educational Projects at ICEAH
17.05-17.35
Home Army - the armed forces of the Polish Underground State
Lecture - Dr. Marek Lasota, Director of the Home Army Museum in Cracow
17.35-18.05
Profiles of the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army soldiers imprisoned in KL Auschwitz
Lecture - Dr. Adam Cyra, Auschwitz Museum Research Centre
18.05 - 18.10
Break
18.10-18.40
"Sosienki" - a division of the Home Army operating around KL Auschwitz
Lecture - Marcin Dziubek, PZS No. 2 in Oświęcim (County Comprehensive Secondary School No. 2)
Many members of the Union of Armed Struggle/Home Army were incarcerated in the German Nazi Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. However, they did not stop fighting in the camp. The camp Home Army and other organised underground structures at Auschwitz were a particular form of resistance in the context of the entire concentration camp system in the Third Reich.
The underground groups passed information to the outside world, created organised prisoner self-help in the camp, made surveillance of the prisoner population more difficult for the SS, and constantly analysed the chances of an armed uprising.
Between 1940 and 1945, at least 188 people holding command posts in the Armed Forces of the Polish Underground State were imprisoned in Auschwitz. From the level of the Home Army Headquarters, 41 people were imprisoned in the camp. Of these, 12 perished and 24 survived the war.
The resistance movement in KL Auschwitz is the subject of our online lesson.
