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Works by Former Prisoners Enrich Auschwitz Museum Holdings
July 17, Oświęcim (PAP-Polish Press Agency) – A watercolor by Władysław Siwek (number 5826), a former prisoner of the German Auschwitz camp, has been added to the collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Collections Department head Igor Bartosik told PAP on Monday. The watercolor is a sketch for a painting depicting the digging of the foundations for Block no. 15; the final version of the painting is already part of the Museum collections.
Siwek was among the best of the painters whose work referred to experiences in Auschwitz. His pictures illustrate everyday camp life and the tragic fate of the prisoners with great realism.
The daughter of former prisoner Michał Kula, an engineer, donated the watercolor and sold two postwar oil paintings by another prisoner artist, Czesław Lenczowski, to the Museum. Kula was given the pictures by friends among his fellow prisoners. They depict incidents in the tragic lives of the prisoners: the first scene shows the "post" punishment (in which the Germans hung a prisoner from a post by his arms, which were twisted behind his back), and the second shows two prisoners writing letters to their families.
Władysław Siwek
Władysław Siwek was born in Niepołomice, Poland, in 1907, and enrolled in the Cracow Fine Arts Academy before the war. The Germans arrested him in January 1940 for involvement in the resistance movement, and incarcerated him in Montelupich prison in Cracow. They deported him to Auschwitz on October 8, 1940. After arriving there, he labored in the camp painting shop, making warning signs, instructional illustrations, and prisoner armbands. Clandestinely, he painted landscapes and made portraits of his fellow prisoners—over 2,000 in all. He was transferred to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in October 1944, and was liberated near Schwerin on May 3, 1945.
After the war, Siwek painted about 50 works on camp themes. He was an artist-in-residence at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum from 1948-1953. He settled afterwards in Warsaw, where he died in 1983.
Czesław Lenczowski
Czesław Lenczowski was born in Świątniki Górne, Poland, in 1905. He studied at the Cracow Fine Arts Academy before the war. He was sent to Auschwitz on May 13, 1942, as punishment for activity in the underground Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ). His camp labor assignments included the camp museum (Lagermuseum). In September 1944, he was sent to a branch of Flossenbuerg Concentration Camp, from which he escaped in April 1945. Two days later, he reached a US Army unit. Lenczowski died in Stary Sącz, Poland, in 1984.
