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Statues Saved from Destruction
Igor Bartosik, head of the Collections Department, said that the only original sculptures from the camp have been brought to the Museum. During the war, they stood at the entrance gate of the Auschwitz sub-camp in Jawiszowice, where prisoners worked as slave laborers in the coal mine.
Jacques Markiel, a Łódź native of Jewish origins, made the sculptures on orders from the SS. Markiel was deported to Auschwitz from Drancy, France, in June 1943, and subsequently assigned to the Jawiszowice sub-camp. His artistic talent saved his life. “The SS exempted him from the murderous labor in the coal mine,” said Bartosik. “Markiel made ornamented everyday objects for the officers. He also created various ‘ornamental’ elements that the Germans saw as decoration for the grounds of the sub-camp.”
The most important works in the latter category are two statues of coal miners. One depicts a man digging with a shovel, and the other a miner with a sledgehammer and miner’s lamp. Both statues are about 2.5 meters high.
Markiel also made numerous smaller items for his fellow prisoners, some of which they gave as gifts to civilians in Brzeszcze and Jawiszowice in gratitude for aid they received illegally from Polish miners. Markiel survived until liberation in Buchenwald, and settled in France after the war.
For decades, the statues stood in front of the District Vocational and General School Complex in Brzeszcze. Made of a cement-lime mixture, the statues suffered the effects of standing in the open air. Increasing numbers of cracks made it imperative to take action to save these works of art, which also have great documentary value, before it was too late.
Three years ago, Rafał Pióro, now chief preservation officer at the Museum, and Igor Bartosik of the Collections Department began their efforts to acquire the statues, which they succeeded in doing thanks to the support and favorable attitude of the district authorities in Oświęcim.
The move was a serious organizational challenge. The statues, weighing more than a ton, had to be cut from their plinths with the use of a special saw, and then properly secured. Planned by Wojciech Plata and Jolanta Banaś of the Preservation Department, the operation was a complete success.
Work will soon begin on making copies, which will be erected in place of the old statues, while the originals will enrich the Collections Department holdings after undergoing conservation.
The History of the Jawischowitz Sub-Camp and its Prisoners
The founding of the sub-camp
The Jawischowitz sub-camp in Jawiszowice operated from July 1942 to January 1945. A German company, the Hermann Goering Werke, financed its construction and expansion. The management of the company and the coal mine planned and carried out specific tasks in coordination with the Auschwitz Concentration Camp authorities.
The first transport of Auschwitz prisoners arrived in Jawiszowice on august 15, 1942. They were Jews, and there were 150 of them. After being receiving a brief indoctrination in the police regulations governing mining, they were sent straight down into the mind to work. This was the first time in the history of the concentration camp system that prisoners were sent to labor below ground. In ethnic terms, the camp was dominated throughout its existence by Jews from various Nazi-occupied countries. The next largest ethnic groups were Poles, Russians, and Germans. The prisoners were quartered in barracks located several hundred meters from the Jawiszowice train station, on the road leading to the Jawiszowice and Brzeszcze mines. A mesh fence and a double, electrified barbed-wire fence surrounded the barracks. Guard towers were built outside the fence.
