79th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising: Remembering the Deported

On July 1st, the State Museum and Memorial Site commemorated the 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, honoring the memory of nearly 13,000 Warsaw residents deported to Auschwitz by the Nazis in 1944.

Commemorating the Hour of the Uprising

79 years ago, on August 1, 1944, at exactly 5:00 PM, the Warsaw Uprising, a 63-day armed rebellion against Nazi Germany, began. At the same hour, Anna Skrzypińska, the deputy director of the Museum, laid a wreath at the Wall of Death in Block 11 of the former Auschwitz I camp, in honor of the city's deported inhabitants.

Warsaw and Auschwitz: An Intertwined History

The history of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz, is deeply connected with the story of the Warsaw Uprising. During and after the suppression of the Uprising, the Nazis deported around 550,000 residents of Warsaw and nearly 100,000 from the surrounding areas. They were directed to the specially established transit camp in Pruszkow near Warsaw, Durchgangslager 121. Approximately 55,000 were transported to concentration camps.

Post-Uprising Deportations to Auschwitz

Following the outbreak of the armed uprising in Warsaw, nearly 13,000 arrested residents of Warsaw — men, women, and children — were deported via the Pruszkow transit camp to Auschwitz in August and September of 1944. They were placed in Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

Tragic Journey of Warsaw's Inhabitants

Those transported represented a cross-section of society, including state officials, scientists, artists, doctors, merchants, and workers, ranging from infants to elders. A small number were also of other nationalities, including Jews hidden under so-called Aryan papers.

Deportees' Fate after Auschwitz

Most of those deported were moved after several weeks to camps in the depths of the Third Reich and employed in the armament industry. Many perished there. In January 1945, at least 602 women with children (including children born in the camp) were transported to Berlin in five separate transports. Some of the deportees were evacuated from the camp in January 1945. Some died during the "death marches", while others were liberated in camps in the Third Reich. At least 400 people, including at least 125 children and adolescents, survived to see liberation.

Remembering the Deported: Exhibits and Educational Materials

The fate of those deported to Auschwitz following the Warsaw Uprising is documented in a special exhibition prepared by the Museum in the Google Cultural Institute and the 10th volume of the educational series, "Voices of Memory."

Books of Remembrance and Educational Materials

The Museum published "The Book of Remembrance: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to KL Auschwitz 1940-1944" in 2000 to honor the memory of the deportees. The Museum also prepared a special online lesson dedicated to the transports from Warsaw to Auschwitz during the Uprising.

In April 2007, the Museum published an updated and expanded version of the frequently reissued collection of stories about children in Auschwitz, "Childhood in Stripes." This is one of the most poignant documents depicting the tragic fate of Auschwitz prisoners and a shocking image of the camp seen through the eyes of a child from Warsaw brought to Auschwitz. Its author, Bogdan Bartnikowski, at the age of 12 participated in the Uprising as a courier. On August 12, 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz with his mother.