A House at Auschwitz Opens Its Doors to the Public for the First time

[Social Media]

 

For 42 years, a mother lived in a three-story house in Oswiecim, southern Poland, overlooking a former gas chamber and gallows at Auschwitz. Despite the grim history just beyond her garden wall, she found the house to be a serene place to raise her two sons. Garzyna Jurczak, a 62-year-old widow, described the home as having "safety, silence, a beautiful garden," and access to a river, with enough space for an ice-skating rink during winter.

 

 

This house, once the residence of Auschwitz’s wartime commandant Rudolf Höss, gained new attention after the release of the Oscar-winning movie "The Zone of Interest." Ms. Jurczak was troubled by the increased attention from visitors who, inspired by the film, would peer through her windows and wander her garden, reminding her of the house's dark past.

 

 

Last summer, she decided to sell the house to the Counter Extremism Project, a New York-based group. By August, she had moved out, and by October, the organization finalized the acquisition of the house and an adjacent post-war property. The plan is to open the house, located at 88 Legionow Street, to the public for the first time. This event will coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Army’s liberation of Auschwitz.

 

 

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, dedicated to preserving the memory of Nazi victims, will host world leaders on January 27 for the commemorations. In preparation for the public opening, the new owners have cleared 14 dumpsters of debris, stripping the house down to its state during the Höss family’s occupancy from 1941 to 1944. A Nazi-era lock on a bathroom door, reading “frei/besetzt” (free/occupied), remains intact.

 

To honor Jewish tradition and reject the fanaticism of the house's former resident, a mezuzah now adorns the front door frame. Commandant Höss, after the war, recalled how the successful experimental gassing of Russian prisoners in 1941 set his mind at ease for the mass extermination of Jews. He was hanged in 1947 near his former home and a Nazi crematory.

 

Inside the house, artifacts from the Nazi era have been found, including a coffee mug embossed with the SS seal and German beer bottles. Striped trousers, once worn by an Auschwitz prisoner, were discovered in the attic, stuffed to block a hole. Researchers are working to identify the owner through a faded prisoner number and symbols indicating the individual was a political prisoner and a Jew.

 

Mr. Wallace of the Counter Extremism Project stated, "This house has been closed for 80 years. It was out of reach to the victims and their families. Finally, we can open it to honor survivors and show that this place of incredible evil is now open to all." The organization plans to turn the house and the adjacent property into the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalization. This new center aims to expand the pledge of "Never Again" from historical memory to contemporary action.

 

Originally built between the two world wars by a Polish military officer, the house was seized by the Nazis after their 1939 invasion of Poland and used as the commandant’s residence. At least 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered at Auschwitz. The house returned to its original owner post-war and was later sold to Ms. Jurczak’s family.

 

Mr. Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, expressed his readiness to collaborate with the Counter Extremism Project to combat extremism. He noted that extremism is a method that manipulates widespread frustration and warned that ordinary people with ordinary ambitions can become monsters. "Mr. Höss," he reflected, "was a wonderful father to his kids and, at the same time, the main organizer of the most brutal killings in the history of the world."

 

Based on a report by NYT 2024-01-16

 

 

[Gandtee]

Lest we forget, but persecution is still practiced not only against Jews.

[JonnyF]

A good time to remind people what atrocities can occur when anti-semitism is allowed to flourish, often disguised as "anti-Zionism" or "Pro Palestinian". 

[Watawattana]

Auschwitz is one of the most sombre and sobering places I've ever been to.  Also at that same 'level' are there Killing Fields museums in Cambodia, and the museums in Hiroshima/Nagasaki.  

 

The Hiroshima/Nagasaki museums did a wonderful job of explaining the impact on ordinary folk, and I got to meet one of the survivors in Phnom Penh.  At Auschwitz we had a Jewish/German guide who spend a fair bit of time expressing her frustration at commonly held views that it was only Jewish people killed there (she pointed the finger at Israeli schooling).  Indeed, according to the guide, the first person killed was a German, non-Jew, thief.  Plenty of Poles, Roma/Sinti, and Soviet POWs were killed.  About 25 thousand prisoners of other nationalities were imprisoned there too, many of whom died.

 

It's good to see this new addition to the Auschwitz museum, another layer of that horrible period of history that so many nations seem to have forgotten.

 

I have been to more uplifting places too by the way!  Maybe not the time to mention Soi 6 though, and what got 'uplifted' there.

[NickyLouie]

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

A good time to remind people what atrocities can occur when anti-semitism is allowed to flourish, often disguised as "anti-Zionism" or "Pro Palestinian". 

 

F Palestine M'kay