A small booklet with the dedication ‘Son, remember that courage is the most important thing in life’, kept at the Museum, helps to tell the story of Bernard Świerczyna, a Polish Auschwitz prisoner and member of the camp resistance movement. Prisoners employed in the offices found books of fairy tales that most likely belonged to murdered Jewish children. Illustrations and texts were copied and illegally sent home to maintain relationships with relatives or to leave behind mementos. One such booklet, telling the story of a hare whose home was taken away by a wolf but rescued thanks to the help of other animals, was made by Bernard Świerczyna for his son Felicjan.

Hidden in a German dictionary, the booklet was handed to the boy’s mother without a word by an anonymous SS man after Świerczyna had already been hanged in the last execution carried out at the camp on 30 December 1944. After an unsuccessful escape from Auschwitz, he and several other prisoners were caught and, after an investigation, executed.

More than 140,000 Poles were registered at Auschwitz, half of whom died here. Setkiewicz points out that this was a significantly higher mortality rate than among prisoners in other German concentration camps, which was probably already due to the way Auschwitz was designed, where a stationary crematorium was first put into operation. It should be noted, however, that in 1943 the conditions of Aryan prisoners, including Poles, improved when, worried about manpower, the Germans allowed food parcels to be sent to the camp. Jews were not allowed to take advantage of this privilege.

“We also know from prisoners’ accounts that there were many more motives, reasons or ways in which one could survive being a Pole in the camp,” says Piotr Setkiewicz. “For example, a strong psyche. It could also have been the help of colleagues or participation in the resistance movement. Nevertheless, survival in Auschwitz was most often decided by chance. Even a Polish prisoner in a good kommando could have contracted typhus at any time, which was a very common disease in the camp. Then he would either die or be murdered by the SS.”

Despite the terror and terrible conditions at Auschwitz, there were also several resistance groups, although relatively few prisoners knew about it. They could only observe its effects, such as the disappearance of a particularly cruel kapo or the escape of fellow prisoners. The most important organisation of this kind was the military conspiracy centred around Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki, to which the imprisoned officers belonged. One should also remember the leftist underground, headed by Józef Cyrankiewicz, a well-known pre-war PPS activist. One of the most important achievements of the conspirators was the collection and transmission outside the camp of information and data on what was happening inside. Figures on incoming transports, registered or dying prisoners or production were smuggled outside the camp and, thanks to the conspirators’ networks and the work of couriers, reached the Polish government in London. These activities involved great risks, and discovered members of the underground were subjected to cruel investigations, torture and then murdered, as was the case with Bernard Świerczyna.

The podcast was produced as part of the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Eastern Europe College project funded by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Public task financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within the grant competition “Public Diplomacy 2022”.  The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the official positions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.