News
Preservation Work at the Birkenau Site
Preservation work on one of the wooden barracks at the site of the men’s quarantine camp in Birkenau sector BIIa will continue until October.
Plans call for thorough preservation, including securing the original elements, renovating those that are most badly damaged, and replacing those that are missing. The wall panels and skylights will also be renovated, and the roof covering replaced. The plans call for laying a new concrete floor and installing lightning protection.
The work is financed by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation.
The Birkenau Quarantine Camp
Prisoners in sector BIa were housed in typical Birkenau stable barracks. . . . Instead of windows, they had skylights in the ceiling as the only light source. The interior of each barracks was divided in three by two rows of posts supporting the roof. Three-level bunks filled the space between the posts and the outside walls. (. . . )
Depending on the number of prisoners in quarantine, and above all on the whims of the SS who always endeavored to mistreat the prisoners, the barracks held between 500 and 800 prisoners each, and at times even a thousand or more (even when other barracks stood empty). Prisoners slept on paper sacks filled with cellulose fiber, or on bare boards . . .. They were covered with strips of filthy, bedraggled barracks or, more often, with nothing at all. They relied on their own body heat for warmth.
In winter or during cold springtime or autumn weather, the barracks afforded the prisoners no protection. The roofs (boards covered with thin tarpaper) were often leaky and the wind blew through cracks. On drizzly days, the water ran down the bunks and formed puddles on the clay floors. The prisoners could hardly rest or feel any relief from camp conditions during nights spent in such circumstances—crowded in close air that reeked of diarrhea-stained clothing and bodies.
The nights were frequently disturbed by the shouting and singing of the drunken block supervisors [who] . . . abused their unlimited power to do as they chose with the prisoners, tormenting and sometimes killing them.
Irena Strzelecka, “Obóz kwarantanny dla więźniów mężczyzn w Brzezince,” Zeszyty Oświęcimskie 20, pp. 64-121.
The Barracks Three Years after the War
In 1948, a reporter for the weekly Przekrój wrote:
“The Birkenau barracks have for the most part been dismantled and put to other uses. The few remaining ones are in the same state as when they were abandoned in January 1945—dirty, with bloodstains and crushed insects on the walls. Over the last three years, they have sunken into the ground and are rotting and collapsing. They are still fearsome and recall bygone times. However, this will soon end. Either the wind and rain will wash them away, or special conservation will protect them while vanquishing the specter of the [Nazi] system. These opposites cannot be reconciled.
Kazimierz Koźniewski, “Drażliwy temat”, Przekrój nr 179, 12-18 IX 1948 r.
Dilemmas
From its very beginnings, the Museum has been the scene of discussions over how to treat the grounds and original camp objects. Contradictory concepts and views remain unresolved. There have been differing proposals—some calling for leaving the original structures with no preservationist intervention, and others advocating far-ranging reconstruction.
First of All: Protect
The Museum’s actions are guided by the principle of saving whatever can be saved: preserving and protecting the ruins of the mass-extermination facilities, the camp buildings, the personal belongings plundered from the victims, and other relics of the crimes, from the ravages of time.
The UNESCO World Heritage List
The international community has recognized the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, as a symbol of the Holocaust and genocide. After a nomination by Poland, UNESCO added the grounds and site of the camp to the world cultural and natural heritage list in 1979.
