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These Are Special Things. Second "Withered Roses" competition

The winners of the second "Withered Roses" competition, organized by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Museum, have been announced. The primary aim of the contest is to encourage and enhance historical awareness, while inspiring young people to learn about the history of the area where they live by searching for historical mementoes. Former Auschwitz prisoner August Kowalczyk was a special guest at the ceremony.

This year, the entrants submitted documents, photographs, memoirs, relief sculptures, a bowl, books, occupation-era newspapers, part of a rifle, clips, and a sack sewn from a camp dress. The majority of the entries were directly connected with the history of Auschwitz and its sub-camps, while others documented the stories of specific families.

"The first edition of the contest was very well received. It was awarded honorable mention by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in the Sybilla 2006 contest for the Museum Event of the Year," said Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Director Piotr M. A. Cywiński during the ceremony. "The works submitted to us this year are proof that we all need to immerse ourselves in history every so often, in order to understand our past, especially if this past is connected with people and places we know. These are very valuable and profound experiences. That was apparent in these submissions. These are special things," said Cywiński.

Here are the winners of this year's "Withered Roses" competition:

• First Prize - Sabina Pyka, Stanisław Wyspiański Powiat General Education School Complex No. 11 in Kęty
  For a small sculpture in linden wood, presenting the head of Christ (Ecce Homo).
  Sabina Pyka interviewed Jan Matuszkiewicz of Kęty, an elderly carpenter who did various jobs, on German orders, as a slave laborer during the war. A Jewish Auschwitz prisoner, Jan Edelman (Pyka is not sure of the last name), was his helper. Matuszkiewicz, in turn, aided Edelman as much as he could.
  Edelman made the sculpture and gave it to Matuszkiewicz in gratitude.
• Second Prize - Krystyna Szczepanik, Powiat Vocational and General Education School Complex No. 6 in Brzeszcze 
  For a pouch sewn from a prisoner's dress.
  Maria Korycińska and her two children were in Polenlager 92 in Kietrze during the war. After liberation, Korycińska suffered anxiety attacks in which she feared that she and her children would go hungry. She sewed a food pouch out of the dress she wore in camp.
• Second Prize - Sabina Wiącek, Stanisław Wyspiański Powiat General Education School Complex No. 11 in Kęty
  For a compact that Wiesław Kielar gave to a woman from Monowice named Zommer. Kielar describes the compact in his book Anus Mundi.
• Second Prize - Katarzyna Lisowska, National Education Commission Second General Secondary School in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
  For recollections of Auschwitz Concentration Camp by former prisoner Helena Gędziba, who went by the name Helena Moskala in the camp.
• Third Prize - Joanna Mochel, Economic-Gastronomic School Complex in Oświęcim
  For a porcelain bowl marked "SS Reich 1941."

The prize commission examined and analyzed the entries, judging above all their historical value, the care taken in the description, the degree to which the student was involved, and their contribution to the preparation of the entry.

All the entrants, who were secondary-school students from Małopolska and Silesia, attended a three-day seminar at the Museum (in the Preservation and Collections departments and the Photographic and Film Documentation Studio) to prepare them for submitting entries consisting of a historical object from the Second World War period, along with historical and photographic documentation.