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REPRESSIONS AGAINST OW MEMBERS

THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN AUSCHWITZ

REPRESSIONS AGAINST OW MEMBERS

In 1941–42, executions of OW members were quite random or linked to other cases rather than a result of Pilecki’s organisation being cracked by the camp Gestapo. Nonetheless, many conspirators were arrested at the time and later perished. The execution of the leaders, Norbert Barlicki and, most of all, Stanisław Dubois, both shot in August 1942, was a painful loss experienced by the group of Polish Socialist Party (PPS) activists.

Drawing. In the foreground numerous bald heads of prisoners, on the left two SS caps. Above them the silhouettes of hanged prisoners dangling on ropes.

Source: A-BSM Collections

A painting by Jerzy Adam Brandhuber, a former inmate of Auschwitz, Roll call—July 1943, Oświęcim 1946.

On 25 June 1943, 55 inmates were executed at the Wall of Death, and 12 others, suspected of underground activity and contacts with the resistance outside the camp, were hanged on 19 July. The victims of these two executions included 25 inmates from the surveyors’ Kommando who also played a liaison role with the locals as they worked outside the barbed wire perimeter. Of special service in these contacts was Janusz Pogonowski, who remained in the camp under the pseudonym of Skrzetuski and was hanged on 19 July 1943.

Portrait photograph of a young man. Gaze directed to the side of the camera, serious, focused face. Hair slightly curly, dark. Dressed in a jacket, a shirt and a tie.

Source: A-BSMA

Janusz Pogonowski. Prewar photograph.

An excerpt from the testimony of Wilhelm Wohlfrath, a former prisoner, concerning the death of Janusz Pogonowski (name used in the camp Skrzetuski):

On 19 July 1943 a gallows was built along the main street of the camp in front of the prison kitchen. It was a long rail suspended on two posts dug into the ground. When we were lined between the blocks and in the main street for the evening roll call, the gallows were already prepared. There were 12 nooses hanging from the rail, each with a stool set up below. After the completion of roll-call formalities, conducted very quickly on that day, Woźniak, Sikorski, Skrzetuski, Marcisz, Stawiński, Wojtyga, Kulikowski, Gancarz, Ohrt, Foltański, Rajzer, and Rapacz were brought under the gallows and were placed on the kitchen side facing the roll-call square so that they had the gallows and the nooses before their eyes. They were all dressed in overalls without underwear, and had hands manacled behind them. Then they were ordered to climb the stools standing under the nooses and, as far as I remember, two prisoners were also brought from the bunker for the purpose of placing the nooses around the necks of the people to be executed. The ceremony was observed by a group of SS officers led by Commander Höss and the Lagerführer. All the camp guards were reinforced. … Höss stepped out from the group surrounding him, accompanied by a Dolmetscher [interpreter] and began to read the sentence. …

Nonetheless, Höss did not finish reading the sentence, as Skrzetuski, standing first in the line, kicked the stool from under his feet and hanged. Seeing that, the SS officers standing in Höss’s group came running to the sentenced and snatched away the stools on which they rested. After the execution, Höss and his SS escort moved away, and we were ordered to go to our blocks.

Source: Wilhelm, Wolfrath, A-BSMA, Höss’s Trial, vol. 4, pp. 40–41.

Further mass arrests among the inmates followed in September 1943, and 74 of these were detained in the bunkers of Block 11. After an investigation that involved intensive interrogations and beating, the camp Gestapo released some of the prisoners. The remaining 54 were executed at the Wall of Death on 11 October 1943. Their number included the main leaders of OW: Juliusz Gilewicz and his brother Kazimierz Gilewicz, Zygmunt Bohdanowski-Bończa, Lieutenant-Colonel Teofil Dziama, Captain Tadeusz Paolone-Lisowski and Lieutenant-Colonel Kazimierz Stamirowski.

In the center there is a wall in front of which stand two naked prisoners, held down by force by a much more powerful prisoner. Just behind them there is an SS man with a gun pointed at them. On the ground to the left the corpses of the slain prisoners are lying on the ground, to the right the SS man is standing and shaking ash from his cigarette. The other two in the background are watching the murder scene.

Source: A-BSM Collections

Execution at the Wall of Death, a painting by Władysław Siwek, a former Auschwitz prisoner.

Source: A-BSMA

One of the pages from the bunker logbook with the names of several of prisoners executed on 11 October 1943 at the Wall of Death. Visible: Lieutenant-Colonel Juliusz Gilewicz, Second Lieutenant (reserve) Kazimierz Gilewicz, Lieutenant-Colonel Teofil Dziama and Captain Tadeusz Paolone-Lisowski.

After this execution of the leaders of the Polish military underground brought about by the presence of spies in the camp, the clandestine activity of OW was significantly weakened. Nonetheless, the repressions did not paralyse its further operation, which was continued mostly by Second Lieutenant (in the reserve) Bernard Świerczyna, Captain Stanisław Kazuba, and Henryk Bartosiewicz.

The transfer of inmates to other concentration camps had a significant impact on the organisational scope and operational capacity of the Auschwitz resistance movement. Specifically, in March and April 1943 more than 7,000 Poles were transported to camps situated in the Third Reich. In this manner, quite unaware of the fact, the SS authorities sent many activists of the camp’s resistance away from Auschwitz. The resistance associated with the Home Army survived in that condition in the camp until mid-1944, that is, until the moment of the setting up of the Auschwitz Joint Military Council (Rada Wojskowa Oświęcim, RWO).