Page 39 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Krakow

THE HIST OR Y OF KR AK OW  37

Auschwitz (Oświęcim)
The name Oświęcim may
have little meaning for most
foreigners but the German
name, Auschwitz, is a synonym
for the crimes of Nazism.
During World War II the Nazis
established Auschwitz (see
Funeral of Marshal Piłsudski pp164–5) and the nearby
The funeral of the Commander, who was Birkenau (Brzezinka) (see
buried at Wawel in 1935, was the biggest pp166–7) concentration camps.
state event in interwar Poland. Just over 1.1 million people
(90 per cent of them Jewish)
were murdered in these camps.
The Auschwitz camp was set
Demolition of Mickiewicz’s Statue up in 1940 to house Polish
During the German occupation all political prisoners and slave
monuments of importance were labourers. It was enlarged to
demolished, including those of include Soviet POWs, and in
Mickiewicz, Kościuszko and Grunwald. 1942 became an extermination
camp for Jews and Gypsies,
who were brought here from
all over Europe. A cynical
inscription over the gate
leading into the Auschwitz
camp reads “Arbeit macht frei”
(“Work makes you free”).
It was in the Auschwitz
Death Block that Maksymilian
Kolbe, a Franciscan priest,
gave up his life for another
inmate. Kolbe (who was later
canonized) was sentenced
to death by starvation.
In the old barracks of
Auschwitz there are exhibitions
telling the history of the camp.
Temporary displays are also
organized. Birkenau, 3 km
(1.8 miles) away, is largely as
The Cavalry Parade the Germans left it. Only some
A military band of the original 300 barracks
gallops at the The parade of the cavalry of the Second Republic remain, along with the loading
head of the took place at Błonie on 6 October 1933 to celebrate platform where new prisoners
troops. the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Vienna, where were unloaded from railway
the Polish cavalry saved the Austrian capital from the wagons and segregated.
Ottomans. Wojciech Kossak painted this grand event.

1933 Cricot, the 1935 Piłsudski is given a 1939 Outbreak 1945 Soviet troops
Artists’ Theatre, state funeral at Wawel of World War II enter Krakow on
is established on 1 September 18 January
1938 Dietl’s 1943 Jewish
statue erected ghetto liquidated
1933 1936 1939 1942 1945
1937 Teaching 1941 Jewish ghetto
commences at established
the Academy
Statue of of Mines and 1939 Krakow occupied by
Józef Dietl Metallurgy the Nazis on 6 September