They were not numbers, triangles or symbols.
And we will not let their names be forgotten.
(Photo: Czeslawa Kwoka, Vinzent Daniel, Maria Schenker, Walter Degen)
The
@AuschwitzMuseum
preserves the photos of 38,916 people who were subjected to the horrors of Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz Concentration Camp. It’s the mission of Faces of Auschwitz to tell each of their stories through the colorization of these photographs.
The best way to support us today is by sharing this tweet and helping us spread our message. The more followers we have, the more people we can reach.
We appreciate your help.
The
@AuschwitzMuseum
preserves the photos of 38,916 people who were subjected to the horrors of Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz Concentration Camp. It’s the mission of Faces of Auschwitz to tell each of their stories through the colorization of these photographs.
Last story of the year: Aron Löwi, a Polish Jew, was born in a village of Dulowa on 15 April 1879.
He died in Auschwitz 5 days after his arrival, at the age of 62.
(
@AuschwitzMuseum
)
We are devastated to hear the news of the passing of
@EvaMozesKor
. She was one of the kindest and bravest women we have ever met, and she understood the mission behind this project and supported us since the very beginning.
May her memory be a blessing.
A Jewish woman walks towards the gas chambers with three young children and a baby in her arms, after going through the selection process on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
DELIANA RADEMAKERS was a Jehovah’s Witness, arrested while performing house-to-house ministry. After her initial incarceration in the occupied Netherlands, she was deported to Auschwitz via the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
#FacesOfAuschwitz
In the first year of Auschwitz's (
@AuschwitzMuseum
) existence most of the prisoners’ rooms had no beds or any other furniture. The inmates slept on paillasses laid out on the floor, which at reveille they had to stack up in the corner, and lay them out again in the evening.
We are proud to announce that our official website is finally LIVE. Access it, read the stories, explore the map, and take some time to think of the victims. Faces of Auschwitz is also a tribute to them.
Please share.
"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed....Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust." ― Elie Wiesel, Night
JANINA NOWAK was a Polish woman born in Będów near Łódź. She was deported to Auschwitz camp on June 12, 1942 and received the prisoner number 7615 during registration. Janina was the first female prisoner who escaped from the camp. Read more:
Another year comes to a close. In 2020, we'll have more stories to tell.
"You are in Auschwitz. And Auschwitz is not a convalescent home. It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work. If you don't you will go straight to the chimney. Work or crematorium--the choice is yours.”
"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
(...)
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."
13 December 1942 | Czesława Kwoka, a Polish Catholic girl, arrived at Auschwitz from the Zamość region. Germans expelled local population from there as part getting 'living space'. Czesława was 14 year old. She was murdered in Auschwitz on 12 March 1943. (Colour:
@marinamaral2
)
Thanks for supporting us throughout this year.
We promise that we will continue to fight to ensure that the memories of all victims of the Holocaust are not forgotten.
Merry Christmas.
SALOMON HONIG, a Polish Jew, was born on 15 May 1889 in the village of Kołaczyce near Jasło. At the time of his arrest he was living at Folwarcznastrasse 11 in Tarnów, Poland, working as a merchant. Read more:
MARIA SCHENKER was born in Krakow, Poland, on March 20, 1913. Very little is known about her life before she was forced into captivity other than the facts that she was Jewish, made her living as an office clerk and, according to some records, was a pianist.
The overcrowding meant that inmates could only sleep on one side, arranged in three rows. Three-tier bunks started being gradually introduced in February 1941.
For supper the prisoners received about 300g of black bread and 25g of sausage, black pudding or margarine; or a tablespoon of marmalade or some cheese. The nutritional value of these meals (with inadequate animal protein, fat, vitamins and minerals) was very low.
SEWERYNA SZMAGLEWSKA studied psychology and literature to become a teacher. After the beginning of German occupation of Poland, she worked in one of the hospitals as a volunteer.
On October 6, 1942, she became a prisoner of Auschwitz.
"We are slaves, deprived of every right, exposed to every insult, condemned to certain death, but we still possess one power, and we must defend it with all our strength for it is the last — the power to refuse our consent.”
― Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
"It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed." - Elie Wiesel
JANINA NOWAK was a Polish woman born on August 19, 1917, in Będów near Łódź. She was deported to Auschwitz on June 12, 1942, and was the first female prisoner who escaped from the camp.
The prisoners received three meals a day. In the mornings all they were given was half a litre of ‘coffee’ (a watery ersatz grain beverage) or ‘tea’ (a herbal beverage).
The noon meal was about a litre of ‘soup’, usually comprising some potato, rutabaga as well as small quantities of kasha (groats), rye flour and Avo food extract.
In a final letter to her family, friends and congregation, she wrote: "go bravely onwards without fear, Jehovah is with us, what can (mere) people do to us?"
Read more about her story:
WITOLD PILECKI was a reserve officer in the Polish Army born in Olonets, Russia. He volunteered for an operation that saw him intentionally imprisoned in Auschwitz in order to gather intelligence on the site’s operations.
This strip of cloth was left over from a Nazi flag, and was signed by women prisoners in Ravensbrück. One of the signatories is Hetty Voute, who worked for the Dutch resistance and used to place endangered Jewish babies, whose parents had been deported, with families.
Great article on Faces of Auschwitz in this month's issue of Memoria Magazine by
@AuschwitzMuseum
. We are flying to Poland in October to film a documentary that hopefully will help you understand our mission and what's behind it.
Read more:
Eva, along with her twin sister Miriam, was subjected to human experimentation under Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. She lost both of her parents and two older sisters to the Holocaust; only she and Miriam survived.
Thank you Marina Amaral -it is amazing how she looks-it brings her back to life, this is the way she looked 75 years ago when we were still at home until we were taken to Auschwitz in May of 1944. My mother Jafa Mozes was a beautiful lady and your coloration makes it obvious!
Czeslawa Kwoka, Maria Schenker, Katarzyna Kwoka, Seweryna Szmaglewska, Janina Nowak, Deliana Rademakers, Prisoner 2731 and Józefa Głazowska - 8 among millions of women who had everything taken away from them - some, even their lives - at Auschwitz.
#InternationalWomensDay
On this day in 1961: Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death for war crimes in Israel.
Charged with managing and facilitating the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and killing centers in the German-occupied East, he was among the major organizers of the Holocaust.
Inspired by Faces of Auschwitz, a wall painting of Auschwitz prisoner Walter Degen was created at Bülowstraße in Berlin. Thank you to Urban Nation Berlin for creating such a powerful statement.
You can read Walter’s story on our website.
Jewish men from Subcarpathian Ruthenia who have been selected for death at Auschwitz-Birkenau, wait to be taken to the gas chambers.
#HMD2019
#HolocaustMemorialDay
This is a screenshot of our drone footage. The next goal is releasing our documentary later this year.
(If you have any interest in collaborating with us in the doc, please reach out!)
JÓZEFA GŁAZOWSKA was born on March 19th, 1930, in the village of Sitaniec. Along with her parents and a group of around 370 people, she was expelled from her village on December 6th, 1942. Józefa was a child victim of Aktion Zamość.
FEBRUARY 24, 1920: Adolf Hitler presents a 25-point plan at a Nazi Party meeting.
In the 25-point program, Nazi Party members publicly declared their intention to segregate Jews from "Aryan" society and to abrogate Jews' political, legal, and civil rights.
It is estimated that 1.5 million children were murdered during the Holocaust, either directly or as a direct consequence of Nazi actions.
Photo: The kids of
@FacesAuschwitz
, Czeslawa Kwoka, Jozefa Glazowska and Iwan Rebalka. Unfortunately, we will feature many others.
Czesława Kwoka was born on August 15, 1928 in Wólka Złojecka. Czesława and her mother, Katarzyna, were Roman Catholics: a group reviled by the Nazi Party.
Czesława was murdered with a phenol injection to the heart at the age of 14.
IWAN REBAŁKA was born on February 6, 1925, to Nastasja and, his father, Maksym Rybałka. According to documents recovered from KL Auschwitz, Iwan belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church and was a milkman by trade when he was arrested in Bielowody.
Faces Of Auschwitz: Telling these personal stories is important, and in some cases, difficult. We know little about the girl in the picture. We don't know her name or her birthday. We only know her number: 2731.
We were trying to track Kazimierz Piechowski down to invite him to share his story, then we learned that we passed away in December. Unfortunately this will be an increasingly common reality, and that is why we must strive to keep the individual stories alive.
Dora Rivkina was the second of three girls born to a Jewish family in Minsk, the capital of Belorussia. The invading Germans reached Minsk in 1941 and Dora's family was ordered into the Minsk ghetto.
Jews from Subcarpathian Rus who have been selected for death at Auschwitz-Birkenau, wait in a clearing near a grove of trees before being led to the gas chambers.
JÓZEF PATER was born on 31 July 1897 in Żyrardów.
At the age of 17 years old, he moved to Krakow to study art.
In April 1942, he was transported to Auschwitz.
In July of that same year, he was murdered by the camp’s Nazi SS personnel.
The time of Gersz Zysking in Auschwitz was brief: according to the official records, he died on August 4, 1942—a little over a month from the time that he was incarcerated and a few months short of his 29th birthday.
We are very sad to hear the news of Mr. Goldfinger's passing.
Against all odds, Murray (born Monek) survived Auschwitz and kindly agreed to give us his powerful testimony. He collaborated with us on a short video of Faces of Auschwitz a few months ago.
IWAN REBAŁKO was born on February 6, 1925. According to documents recovered from KL Auschwitz, he belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church and was a milkman by trade when he was arrested in Bielowody, Kreis Myropilla, Russland.
Under the supervision of American soldiers, a German mother shields the eyes of her son as she walks with other civilians past the bodies of 57 Russians, including women and one baby, exhumed from a mass grave outside the town of Suttrop.
The majority of the Jews who arrived in Auschwitz in transports organized by the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), at least 1.1 million people including more than 200 thousand children and young people, were killed in the gas chambers immediately or soon after arrival.
Among the millions of photographs that are related to Nazi death camps, only four depict the actual process of mass killing perpetrated at the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Read more:
WALTER DEGEN was born on 4 January 1909 in Mörchingen. He was a locksmith.
Walter was arrested under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code, which made homosexual acts between males a crime.
MARIA SCHENKER was born in Cracow, Poland, on March 20, 1913. Very little is known about her life before she was forced into captivity other than the facts that she was Jewish, made her living as an office clerk and was a pianist.
WALTER DEGEN was born in Mörchingen. He was registered both as a homosexual and a German political prisoner.
In Auschwitz, prisoners of German nationality designated by a pink triangle were arrested under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code as “asocial parasites”.
The bodies of former prisoners are stacked outside the crematorium in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 23, 1945.
Jewish women and children from Subcarpathian Ruthenia who have been selected for death at Auschwitz-Birkenau, walk toward the gas chambers.
#HMD2019
#HolocaustMemorialDay
AUGUST KOWALCZYK was a Polish actor.
In reaction to the occupation of Poland, he intended to join the Armia Krajowa as a resistance fighter. However, while traveling to Slovakia to enlist, he was captured by the Nazis and labeled as a political prisoner.
The fate of child was no different in principle from that of adults in Auschwitz. Just like adults, they suffered from hunger and cold, were used as laborers, and were punished, put to death, and used as subjects in criminal experiments by SS doctors.
"Remember it always, let it be graven in your memories. You are in Auschwitz. And Auschwitz is not a convalescent home. It is a concentration camp.
Here, you must work. If you don’t you will go straight to the chimney.
Work or the crematorium—the choice is yours."
We are filming the second part of the documentary in LA today. The man in the picture has an incredible story and we are very honored to be able to give him the chance to share it with you all.
More details soon
JÓZEFA GŁAZOWSKA was born on March 19th, 1930, in the village of Sitaniec. She was deported to Auschwitz in a transport of 318 women and children, and arrived at the camp in the same transport as Czesława Kwoka.
All the photographs that belong to FACES OF AUSCHWITZ are available on our website. We have permission from
@AuschwitzMuseum
to colorize and use them.
Any other colorist reproducing the idea is not related to the project.
GERSZ ZYSKING was born November 17, 1913, in Łódź, Poland. According to the official records, Gersz died on August 4, 1942—a little over a month from the time that he was incarcerated and a few months short of his 29th birthday.
Men and women deemed 'unfit for work' together with mothers with children are sent towards their fate. Photograph of Hungarian Jews taken by a German SS photographer in May 1944.