Auschwitz Barracks Then and Now 3

When you view the next series of drawings, understand the choice the artist survivor is making. First, they choose their own way and survive. And then they choose to go back to that memory and preserve what few captured on film, or in writing. For us.

Auschwitz prisoner life is what created these drawings, and the photos taken almost 60 years later to connect Then, to Now. Several survivor artists reflect their memories onto the paintings to follow; Mieczyslaw Koscielniak’s “A Day in the Life of a Woman Prisoner” ends Then and Now with a series of what it was like to wake up in the barracks, tightly packed. And head out for another day of work.

The Morning Routine Before Going to Work or Death at Auschwitz

NOTE: Tap on the Then and Now tabs to switch between images and photos.

13. “ Getting Up”

Sleeping stacked together, nights went by quickly from sheer exhaustion. Imagine how many people are in this barracks, packed together into spaces, and this is likely the best part of their day.

• Then
• Now

“NIGHT…. A brick has come loose from the low wall separating out cell from the next where other larvae sleep, moan, and dream under the blankets that cover them – these are shrouds covering them for they are dead., today, tomorrow what does it matter,… We feel that we teeter on the edge of a dark pit, a bottomless void – it is the hole of the night where we struggle furiously, struggle against another nightmare, that of our real death.”*

“MORNING From the edge of the darkness a voice shouted “Aufstehen” [German: get up]. From the darkness a voice echoed “Stavache” [phonetic spell of Polish: get up] and there was a dark stirring from which each withdrew her limbs. We had only to find our shoes and jump down. The whip whistled and lashed those who did not emerge fast enough from their blankets. Lash in hand, the stubhova [German: barracks leader] standing in the passageway would fly up to the third tier, to the centers of the cells, whipping faces and legs numb with sleep.”**

* Charlotte Delbo, Night (from Auschwitz and After: None of Us Will Return), (1995) Yale University Press, p56.

**Charlotte Delbo, Morning (from Auschwitz and After: None of Us Will Return), (1995) Yale University Press, p62.

During those days and nights, straw often lined the bottom of these sleeping hutches. Being in the lower two tiers was not pleasant, diarrhea being so common an affliction.

Those on higher hutches were often too exhausted to use the bucket, often filled to overflowing, and relieved themselves where the lay. These facts are disgusting, however familiarization with such details is necessary if one wants to understand the conditions in these camps.

Barrack consisting of “sixty-two bays each with three ‘roosts’. A roost was originally supposed to hold three prisoners, but Bischoff’s [chief of the Auschwitz building office] numerology increased the capacity to four.

To sleep, to sit, and keep his belongings, each prisoner was now provided with ‘private’ space that amounted to the surface dimensions of a large coffin or the volume of a shallow grave.”* Originally built for Soviet POW’S, it was later to become part of the woman’s camp.

*Deborah Dwork & Robert Jan van Pelt. Auschwitz 1270 To The Present (New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 265-6.
** (Yale University Press 1995, p.56)

 14. Toilets

Things we take for granted in the morning, like going to the bathroom in peace, are memories. Many of these prisoners were free days, or weeks earlier. Now thrown into the chaos of Auschwitz, lining up in the bathroom to wait. Maybe even get punished while you wait, some keep quiet. Others stare forward, empty and frightened.

• Then
• Now

There was no privacy, very little water for washing and little or no opportunity for personal cleanliness in Auschwitz. Prisoners were often afflicted starvation syndrome, typhus, and other diarrhea-producing illnesses.

The toilets in each barrack were totally inadequate and prisoners were often beaten while using them. The toilets depicted here were a luxury, having running water.

In Birkenau latrines were cleaned by hand, another strategy of dehumanization. Author Terrence Des Pres described it as an “excremental assault” and wrote:

“How much self-esteem can one maintain, how readily can one respond to the needs of another, if both stink, if both are caked with mud and feces?”

[Terrence Des Pres, The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps (Pocket Books: New York, 1976) p. 66.]

These toilets are in the brick barracks in Auschwitz I. As the camp expanded and Auschwitz II at Birkenau was built, no such toilets existed.

There were, rather concrete slabs with many holes in them (see Birkenau Photos for another photo).

15. The Washroom at Birkenau (Auschwitz II)

Before dawn the day begins in the washroom. This trough is packed with people looking for a moment of cleanliness. Because after they leave this room, it’s unlikely they’ll return, much less get washed up again. This painting from survivor Janina Tollik’s memory and experience.

• Then
• Now

The wash troughs in this barrack, resembling those used to water horses or cattle, serviced several large barracks. In BIIa they sufficed for 7,000.

There was certainly not enough time for more than perhaps 500-1,000 to wash in the morning, and no more in the evening. There was no soap or hot water. Disease was rampant: spotted fever, typhus, and starvation-diarrhea. Infectious diseases caused by lowered immune resilience, were common and often epidemic.

If a prisoner was to resist the various afflictions that beset the prisoners, maintaining a semblance of cleanliness, though still inadequate, was necessary.

The wash troughs in this barrack, resembling those used to water horses or cattle, serviced several large barracks. In BIIa they sufficed for 7,000.

There was certainly not enough time for more than perhaps 500-1,000 to wash in the morning, and no more in the evening. There was no soap or hot water.

Disease was rampant: spotted fever, typhus, and starvation-diarrhea. Infectious diseases caused by lowered immune resilience, were common and often epidemic.

If a prisoner was to resist the various afflictions that beset the prisoners, maintaining a semblance of cleanliness, though still inadequate, was necessary.

16. A Day in the Life of a Woman Prisoner: Marching through the Gate

 Stepping out of the barracks and into the cold reality of another day at Auschwitz, Mieczyslaw Koscielniak focused on the life of women prisoners. Under the mayhem of smoke in the sky, these prisoners lock arms helping each other keep in step. Knowing some would not return from work that day.

• Then
• Now

The gate at BIb where women prisoners were marched from their barracks to and from slave-labor.

This is another drawing in a series by former prisoner and survivor, artist Mieczyslaw Koscielniak, entitled “A Day in the Life of a Woman Prisoner”.

The gate at BIb where women prisoners were marched from their barracks to and from slave-labor.

Not far from here there was another gate to the main street. Near it the women’s orchestra played classical music as prisoners marched by. Many of the musicians were members of symphony orchestars from all over Europe.

17. “Marching Out to Work”

 Going to work in the morning at the women’s camp, survivor Mieczyslaw Koscielniak’s painting shows lines of prisoners marching in 4 columns, led by a Kapo with the ever present guard tower, and the dog ready to jump anyone who steps out of line.

• Then
• Now

“You have these feet going forward, heavily, walking before you, these feet you are avoiding and you’ll never catch up with, feet preceding yours, always, even at night in a nightmare of trampling, these feet so fascinating that you would see them even if you were in the front rank, feet that drag or stumble yet keep on going….

Once the columns were formed, there was a long wait. Thousands of women taking time going out, five by five, counted as they pass. Passing through the gate made us tighten.

Passing under the eyes of the Drexler woman, of Taube, under the eyes of so many scrutinizers….In front of the control barracks, a woman SS touched with her stick the first woman of each rank and counted… up to a hundred., up to two hundred, according to the [work group’s] size.

When that one had passed through, two SS, each holding a dog on a leash, closed the line of march. Coil by coil, the camp cast out inot the daylight the entrails of the night.”*

* Charlotte Delbo, Night (from Auschwitz and After: None of Us Will Return), (1995) Yale University Press, pp 44, 45.

This is the main street running down the center of the Birkenau, the largest slave labor and killing center.

To the left is the woman’s camp. Many of the barracks were dismantled just after the war. The brick one-story barracks still remain.

Prisoners marched to work, five abreast here. This street is just to the left of the unloading ramp, where close to a million people were unloaded from trains and sent along this street to slave labor or more probably the gas.

18. Digging Foundations for Block 15

In 1941 using prisoner labor and building material gathered from demolished house nearby, the prisoners under the harshest conditions constructed eight two-story buildings. One of them was Block 15. Survivor Wladyslaw Siwek captures memory in this painting, see what it looks like Now.

• Then
• Now

Auschwitz was built by prisoner slave labor. Barely seen behind the SS officers at the extreme top left, are the chimneys of the camp kitchen.

The large building between the two trees is the camp administration headquarters. The camp was 1,000m wide and 400m long, and was to contain 33 blocks for housing prisoners.

In 1941 using prisoner labor and building material gathered from demolished house nearby, the prisoners under the harshest conditions constructed eight two-story buildings. As one can see the work was brutal.

This photo was taken just to the left side of the barracks shown under construction in the painting. One cannot help but wonder about the number of souls who perished in its construction.

The large building is camp administration, now holding the Director of the Auschwitz Museum, the Documentation Archives, Historians, and many other offices and sections.

A Survivor’s Painting Started This Series, Alan Jacobs Finished It

Auschwitz photographer Alan Jacobs’ journey created Then and Now, as those initial paintings like Mieczyslaw Koscielniak’s “A Day in the Life of a Woman Prisoner” were shared with him many years before he took the photos.

Shaping his own remembrance over decades, he saw a series. Standing where Mieczyslaw’s paintings came from; he’d take the photos from the same place. Then and Now is a theme in all of Jacobs’ work on Remember.org, inspired by the survivors’ art to connect the past to what it means for us all, now.

Often he would get emails asking, what is it like to take these photos at Auschwitz?

Here’s one response he shared:

I think it is different for different people. One’s frame of reference shapes the experience.

I have been there 9, yes 9, times since 1979. Each time my experience was/is different and, hard as this may be to understand, enriched. Echo the past? This depends on how much one knows (and I stress,  understands) about the past, history, moral questions etc…

The first time I was sad, frightened and shocked. Over time I have  learned how to protect myself. As Birkenau survivor and great writer  Charlotte Delbo that when writing or thinking about it, she developed  an Auschwitz skin.

In the world it is folded like a hooded jacket  behind my neck. When I am in the camp I unfold it and wear it for  protection.

Each time there I have learned more about life and myself and I realized that my seeing it was really nothing compared to the inmate’s experience.

Creating the Then and Now exhibit for us all to learn a little bit more, and appreciate, Alan’s work remains one of the most requested exhibits. Maybe because the way these paintings shaped Alan’s remembrance, is helping shape our own by witnessing, the witnesses.

Auschwitz Birkenau Daily Life – Part 3