A Day On Wikipedia

On [[June 14]], [[1940]], German occupying authorities organized ”’first mass transport of prisoners”’ to the recently opened [[Auschwitz Concentration Camp]]. The transport, which set from southern [[Poland|Polish]] city of [[Tarnow]], consisted of 728 Poles (but also Polish Jews<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=vdtaBoUgXSMC&pg=PR9&lpg=PR9&dq=Sachsenhausen+to+Auschwitz+1940&source=web&ots=54ykfMsC5n&sig=r41ZzF1U1AbgqFJH-897aPxurkg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result Hermann Langbein, People in Auschwitz, page IX]</ref>). They were political prisoners, usually affiliated with resistance movements <ref>[http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/auschwitz.html Andrew Nagorski, A Tortured Legacy]</ref>. All were sent to Auschwitz by the [[Sicherheitspolizei]] – German Security Police. They came to Auschwitz I from the regular prison at Tarnow, where they had been incarcerated as political opponents of the Nazi regime. These inmates were assigned the numbers 31 through 758 <ref>[http://www.cympm.com/auschwitz.html Auschwitz/Birkenau and subcamps]</ref>, with numbers 1 through 30 having been reserved for ordinary German criminals, brought from [[Sachsenhausen]]<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=vdtaBoUgXSMC&pg=PR9&lpg=PR9&dq=Sachsenhausen+to+Auschwitz+1940&source=web&ots=54ykfMsC5n&sig=r41ZzF1U1AbgqFJH-897aPxurkg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result Hermann Langbein, People in Auschwitz, page IX]</ref>, who had come to Auschwitz on May 20<ref>[http://www.diapozytyw.pl/en/site/szoach/auschwitz Shoah, Auschwitz]</ref> and who later became [[Kapo|kapos]].

According to local historian from Tarnow, Aleksandra Pietrzykowa, a day before the transport, on June 13, the 728 prisoners were called from a previously prepared list and ordered to take a shower and to desinfect themselves in a public bath. The procedure lasted all night and early in the morning, whole group, escorted by the [[SS]], marched along deserted Tarnow streets, to the railway station’s platform. There, all were pushed to the waiting rail cars.

[[Eugeniusz Niedojadlo]], who was in the group, recalled later: ‘The day of our departure was hot and sunny. We were walking in fours, guarded by the armed SS. Inhabitants of Tarnow were ordered to stay at homes, and we had no idea where we were going’<ref>[http://www.tarnow.pl/historia/taka/15.php First transport to Auschwitz, official portal of the city of Tarnow]</ref>.

Niedojadlo stated that the sprawling group looked like a giant snake and it gave him impression of cattle, being led to a slaughterhouse. ‘The SS were constantly yelling at us, and we were sad and depressed. Even though the streets were empty, here and there I saw curious faces looking at us from behind the curtains. At one moment, some unknown hand tossed a bunch of red flowers towards us, but an SS officer trampled it<ref>[http://www.tarnow.pl/historia/taka/15.php First transport to Auschwitz, official portal of the city of Tarnow]</ref>.

Polish historian Aleksandra Pietrzykowa, who specializes in [[World War Two]]-related topics in the area of Tarnow claims that initially, 753 persons left the prison on that day. However, only 728 inmates reached the camp. Pietrzykowa tried to find answer to that question, writing: ‘In prison records, under the date June 13, 1940, a transport of 753 persons was mentioned. However, 25 persons less reached the camp. We have established that one person was released at the rail platform, just before departure of the train. According to testimonies of other inmates – Jan Stojakowski (number 577, arrested on November 2, [[1939]]), E. Geissler and Wladyslaw Pilat (number 330), the remaining 24 might have been prisoners from [[Stalowa Wola]], who reached Auschwitz, but for unknown reasons, all were brought back to Tarnow on the next day. In Tarnow prison records, under the date June 15, 1940, there is a short entry: ‘Transport Stalowa Wola, 24 persons’. We do not know what happened to these inmates and why they were transported back, if they were transported back at all’<ref>[http://www.tarnow.pl/historia/taka/15.php First transport to Auschwitz, official portal of the city of Tarnow]</ref>.
The number 31, which opened the list of political prisoners of Auschwitz I, was given to [[Stanislaw Ryniak]], who was the first Pole in Auschwitz<ref>[http://www.pacwashmetrodiv.org/projects/nazipers/ Nazi Persecution of Polish Christians]</ref>. Ryniak, who in 1940 was 24 years old, had been arrested by the Nazis in his hometown of [[Sanok]] in May 1940 and was accused of being a member of the Polish resistance<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/international/europe/28RYNI.html?ex=1223006400&en=9162aacc95d00acf&ei=5070 Stanislaw Ryniak, Auschwitz Inmate, Dies at 88]</ref>. On May 7, he was transported to Tarnow prison, together with eighteen other Poles from [[Jaroslaw]].
The number 758, the last one of the transport, was assigned to [[Ignacy Plachta]] from [[Lodz]]<ref>[http://www.auschwitz.info/e/statements.html General meeting of the International Auschwitz Committee and a special „Meeting of the generations’ in Oswiecim]</ref>. Plachta had been caught by the [[Gestapo]] in southern town of [[Zagorz]], on February 1, 1940, while trying to escape to [[Hungary]].

Upon arrival, the Poles lined up in 5 rows and were met by [[Hauptsturmführer]] [[Karl Fritzsch]], who announced: ‘This is Auschwitz Concentration Camp… Any resistance or disobedience will be ruthlessly punished. Anyone disobeying superiors, or trying to escape, will be sentenced to death. Young and healthy people don’t live longer than three months here. Priests one month, Jews two weeks. There is only one way out — through the crematorium chimneys’<ref>[http://www.auschwitz.info/e/statements.html General meeting of the International Auschwitz Committee and a special „Meeting of the generations’ in Oswiecim]</ref>.

In spite of those dim prospects, Aleksandra Pietrzykowa established that around 200 members of the first transport survived. Eugeniusz Niedojadlo, a political prisoner and survivor, who spent almost five years in Auschwitz, said that members of the first transport kept together all the time. The Tarnow inmates also cooperated with other Polish inmates, from nearby city of [[Rzeszow]]<ref>[http://www.tarnow.pl/historia/taka/15.php First transport to Auschwitz, official portal of the city of Tarnow]</ref>.

Today, the square in front of former public bath in Tarnow is called Square of Auschwitz Inmates, and in [[1975]], a monument commemorating this tragic event was unveiled there. The author of the project of the monument is Tarnow’s architect [[Otto Schier]].

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Auschwitz concentration camp]]
[[Category:History of Poland (1939–1945)]]
[[Category:Germany–Poland relations]]