Paintings from a Survivor

Some of the paintings of Marian Kolodziej

During one of our final days in Poland, we were able to look at the astonishing paintings of Marian Kolodziej, one of the first prisoners at Auschwitz I. After his liberation, Kolodziej became a set designer for theater productions and didn't want to share his experiences about the Shoah. However, after he suffered a stroke, he began to draw out his memories of the Shoah. These paintings are located under the Franciscan Center of St. Maksymillian. Although it was described as a preservation nightmare, the drawings themselves are absolutely terrifying. These paintings are primarily in black and white, drawing scenes from his time at the extermination camp of Auschwitz and throughout the Shoah. A lot of imagery is present in these paintings as well, utilizing symbolism in some of them to demonstrate how Kolodziej was feeling during this troubling time. I consistently found crosses and skulls littered throughout the drawings, symbolizing Christianity and death respectively. However, the most impactful thing for me that I saw while viewing these paintings were the humans themselves. The way the humans are drawn themselves initially threw me off, and I found myself very disturbed by some of the images that I saw. This disturbance was due to the way the humans were portrayed in these paintings. They seemed lifeless, skinny beyond all belief; their faces had a mix of fear and an acceptance of death. There was also a painting that showed the deterioration of a human during their time in the camps. This particularly disturbed me, as you can watch how a person deteriorates and eventually succumbs to the harsh conditions of these camps, and looking at their faces also shows you a thousand different emotions that they are feeling. Seeing these pictures reminded me of a movie that my class saw entitled The Last Days. The Last Days is a documentary film that covered the lives of five individuals that survived the Holocaust. We were able to listen and bear witness to their stories: one of the ladies had to eat diamonds continually in order to hide them from any guards once she got placed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Another lady talked about how she celebrated the Shabbat in the latrines. Being able to hear these stories, I was ready to start pairing them with the pictures that I saw at the Franciscan Center of St. Maksymillian. This connection didn't come to me right away. However, in the back of my mind, I kept imagining the people in Kolodziej's paintings reenacting out the stories that I heard in The Last Days. I couldn't stop thinking about these images for a while, even after I returned to New York. Those images are alluring, mesmerizing, and terrifying all at the same time, and they leave an impression on your mind, forcing you to think about the events that happened in the Shoah. There are people out in the world who will try to deny that the Holocaust ever existed. After my time in Poland, I find it hard to believe that any of those claims are true.

Read More

Wall of Death

A reconstruction of the Wall of Death

During our first time visiting the location of Auschwitz I, we learned about the Wall of Death, locating right next to Block of 11, a place of pure horror. This building was responsible for the torture and murder of thousands of people, including Father Maximilian Kolbe, who eventually became a saint after his martyrdom. Not only that, but the first tests of Zyklon B were used down in the basements of Block 11. Being relegated to Block 11 was practically a death sentence if you were being held at Auschwitz I. With the use of standing cells, which forced individuals to stand for days on end forcibly, and starvation cells, where you were sure to perish, no one made it out alive of this building of death. However, this Wall of Death was where many individuals met their untimely end. It was a location of execution, meant for inmates who were sentenced to death in Block 11. These individuals were stripped naked, dragged out to the wall, and made to stand facing it. Then, a single shot to the back of the head marked the end of their lives. Their bodies were then placed in a pile near the Wall of Death, piling up before they were eventually carted away to the crematorium. Like pigs, they were lead to the slaughter and then discarded, piled up without any decency whatsoever. This type of inhumane behavior towards Jewish individuals reminded me about some of the scenes in The Holocaust Kingdom that outright disturbed me. There were descriptions in the memoir elaborating on the slaughter of people on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto, individuals being beaten up, mocked, and shot dead for no reason other than their religious faith. Not only that, but the occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto were treated like pigs as well, being locked in the ghetto, not allowed to leave, left to starve to death. This imagery is striking on its own, outlying the atrocities that many individuals in the Shoah had to experience. However, combined with the treatment of executed inmates at the Wall of Death, a clearer picture is painted on how the Nazi's truly felt about Jewish individuals. The Jews throughout the Shoah were treated like pigs; cattle lead to the slaughterhouse. They started to lose any semblance of human dignity that they possessed, robbed of their humanity by the Nazis. To them, the Jews were nothing more than dirty animals, and they were treated as such throughout the extent of the Holocaust: verbally and physically. Learning and seeing where these atrocities were committed stirred something within me, a desire to prevent these crimes from ever happening again. Individuals should realize that no one deserves to be discriminated against for their beliefs; robbed of their humanity due to faith. Auschwitz itself was a place of death and torture, where many individuals lost their lives due to misguided contempt. As a society, we need to learn from our mistakes surrounding the Shoah and come together to respect one another. If we fail to do that, then history will end up repeating itself all over again.

Read More

In Wadowice

The central church at Wadowice, Poland

While visiting Wadowice during our first full day in Poland, we learned about the childhood of Pope John Paul II. Learning about his living situation, how he was brought up, and what the community was like back when John Paul II was growing up gave us more insight into the relations between Christians and Jews before the start of World War II. We also attended a Sunday Mass at the central church located in Wadowice. These masses ran a couple of times per day, extending well into the afternoon. This is something that I had never experienced before, as my parish only runs Sunday morning mass, not running into the afternoon like this parish did. It was honestly really interesting as well, some of the little nuances of this mass were different from what I experienced in my own hometown. During my time there, I was also told of a story back when John Paul II was a child before the outbreak of WWII, during our tour of the Pope John Paul II museum, located in the building where his house used to be. At the time, he was friends with a Jewish boy named Jerzy Kluger, whom he later reconnected with years after they lost touch. Not only were their relationships strong, but they commonly visited one another, immersing themselves in each other's culture. There was a time when Jerzy Kluger did eventually walk into the church in search of his friend, who was in the church at the time. One of the parishioners looked at Kluger funny and questioned why he was even present in the church in the first place. John Paul II allegedly responded: "Aren't we all God's children?" This story reminded me about something called the teachings of contempt and respect. The teaching of contempt itself in relation to anti-semitism has been around for thousands of years before this story, laced into the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and it’s offspring for centuries. People like St. Augustine, Martin Luther, and even some popes all expressed these feelings, which shaped church doctrine and ultimately resulted in the negative preconceptions aimed at Jews that surfaced during the 1930’s-1940’s. Then there is the teaching of respect, which is meant to combat anti-semitism. Fighting against the catalysts to anti-semitism was something that became prevalent after the events of the Shoah, and John Paul II’s words show how this respect was present back before the Shoah, although not as prevalent. However, this teaching of respect can also apply to almost every aspect of our lives today. Being able to move past discrimination and learning how to love other individuals, no matter who they are, is something that society needs to work on to this day. This teaching of respect shouldn’t only be utilized to fight against anti-semitism. There are so many other fields of interest where this respect is needed. If we, as a society, can come together and learn to love another, then we can truly progress forward.

Read More