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CREATIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FEMALE PRISONERS

WOMEN IN AUSCHWITZ

WOMEN IN AUSCHWITZ

CREATIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FEMALE PRISONERS

The prisoners also manufactured all kind of creative artistic work- toys for children from the camp, religious objects, small items as souvenirs (small boxes and figures made of pieces of wood, fabric or other materials), greeting and holiday cards, birthday and name-day cards for friends and portraits of inmates.

One more picture from Christmas has remained in my memory to this day. That was Christmas Day, and children and female inmates came to visit us, and brought us presents. They were toys – puppets sewn from old blankets. Women elaborated them risking their lives, because damaging blankets – property of the camp – was a bad crime according to the camp authorities. Yet what counted most for them was the dram of joy they could give to the little inmates. I greatly appreciate that. 

Source: Wacława Szczygielska, A-BSMA, Testimonies Collection, vol. 144, p. 231.

Greeting cards manufactured by female prisoners in the camp

A card with the inscription 'Happy Name Day!' adorned with dried flowers.

Source: A-BSMA


A greeting card with a painted bouquet of roses on a dark background. Front.

Source: A-BSMA


The reverse side of the same card – a poem and the signatures and camp numbers of the female prisoners from barrack number four.

Source: A-BSMA


A photographic portrait of Zofia Stępień, dressed in a dark sweater with a white collar. Hair pinned back.

Source: A-BSMA

A well-known portrait painter in the camp was Zofia Stępień, who in her works was portraying women the way they war in their past life in freedom: well- dressed, smiling with their faces smooth and with neat curls of hair around. 

Source: Collections Department of A-BSM

Zofia Stępień - Portrait of a young woman.


A drawing that illustrates a woman kneeling and praying in front of the wires, at the top of the drawing: a large bust of the Virgin Mary looking down at a female prisoner.

Source: Collections Department of A-BSM

Zofia Stępień - Prayer.


A photographic portrait of Janina Tollik with a tattoo on her arm.

Source: A-BSMA

Janina Tollik saved in her drawings the scenes of daily life of female prisoners. As she was not able to keep them, she destroyed the drawings, trying to remember all the details, so that she was able to re-create them on the painting made after the war.

Female prisoners marching in groups of five on their way to work. They are escorted by SS supervisors along with dogs. The wind is blowing, and the day is cloudy. In the background, trees swaying in the wind.

Source: Collections Department of A-BSM

Janina Tollik, On the way to work.


Rows of female prisoners standing in front of a barracks with a female overseer. In the background, three trucks transporting people are approaching, accompanied by the SS with a dog. In the background: red glows and smoke from crematorium chimneys.

Source: Collections Department of A-BSM

Janina Tollik,  Penal roll call.


Tiny leather slippers stitched together with thick thread.

Source: Collections Department of A-BSM

Tiny little shoes Batszewa Dagan received from a fellow female prisoner with the wishes:” let them lead you to freedom”. Batszewa Dagan was hiding them successfully for 20 months in her prisoner’s garment or straw mattress and kept in the post- war time as a very valuable souvenir. In 2016 she donated them to the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau Collection. 


A modern photography showing the slippers lying on a hand in a white glove. The slippers are approximately 1 cm in length.

Source: Collections Department of A-BSM

Tiny little shoes Batszewa Dagan received from a fellow female prisoner with the wishes:” let them lead you to freedom”. Batszewa Dagan was hiding them successfully for 20 months in her prisoner’s garment or straw mattress and kept in the post- war time as a very valuable souvenir. In 2016 she donated them to the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau Collection. 


Both poems and artistic works were created illegally. It occurred, that women with artistic skills had to create semi- clandestine works, i.e.: they were taking private commissions from the prisoner functionaries or even SS- staff without the camp authorities’ knowledge and consent. Many gifted female prisoners survived the camp thanks to their skills. 

„[...] I was drawing portraits of Germans working in the camp (according to the commission, [portraits] of their sons, as they perished during the war), so that I could make also clandestine sketches from my experiences in the camp. 

Source: Ella Shiber, née Lieberman, A-BSMA, Testimonies Collection, vol. 102, pp. 43-44.