A Museum of the Righteous to be Established in Oświęcim
"The Museum of the Auschwitz Righteous will be established here. We must remember who were the executioners and who were the victims", said Beata Szydło. "The shocking and disgraceful process of industrial murder carried out in concentration camps has forever left a mark on the fate of the world. For these hate crimes, there can never be an excuse. It is therefore important to pass on the truth about those events."
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Piotr Gliński, said, "To date, the Institute of National Remembrance has shown that 506 individuals from the Oświęcim area suffered because they helped prisoners. Soon, the names of another 120 will be added to that list. The main type of help was hiding prisoners and providing them with food. The main punishment - execution by being shot. This demonstrates the level of heroism displayed by those who were good samaitans. It was a solidarity shown by an entire community. Solidarity is such an important word in the Polish language."
According to the publication Ludzie dobrej woli. Księga Pamięci mieszkańców Ziemi Oświęcimskiej niosących pomoc więźniom KL Auschwitz (People of Goodwill - a Book of Remembrance of Oświęcim Residents Who Helped Prisoners of KL Auschwitz), edited by Dr Henryk Świebocki and published in 2005 by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and the Association for the Care of Oświęcim, more than 1,200 individuals aided Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners during World War II These included members of the Home Army (AK), members of the Polish Socialist Party, as well as farmers. Read more.
The museum is to be erected in the immediate vicinity of the Auschwitz I, in the former "Lagerhaus" which, during World War II, was used by the SS as a warehouse. As Zbigniew Starzec, Oświęcim District Administrator, told Gazeta Wyborcza, the first renovation works will commence next year. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum wouldn't participate in the creation of the exhibition.
The idea of creating the museum was met with criticism from many Holocaust historians, among them from the Polish Centre for Holocaust Research. Read more.
The subject of saving Auschwitz-Birkenau camp prisoners has been, to date, taken on by, among others, the Yad Vashem Institute in its "Flickers of Light” virtual exhibition, showing six Righteous of different nationalities, who gave help to Jewish fellow prisoners. Among them is Jerzy Bielecki, whose story is told on our website.
Read the story of Jerzy Bielecki
The first museum dedicated to Poles saving Jews during the Holocaust opened last year in Markowa, Podkarpacie Province. The focus of its exhibition are the patrons of the museum, the Ulm family who, on 24th March 1944, were murdered for rescuing Jews. In 1995, they were honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
