Jan komski biography
Exhibition in the Florida Holocaust Museum
We acknowledge that the propriety rights in the following pictures might belong to the estate of the late artist Mr. Jan Komski of blessed memory and /or organizations that might have acquire such rights.
We will acknowledge such right holders as soon as we will be able to trace them. Since the last Holocaust survivors pass away at a rapid path now, our sole purpose in publishing the following pictures is merely educational. We derive no profit whatsoever from presenting the following exhibition on our website. It is presented solely for the benefit of the viewing public.
Captions by Krysia & Alan Jacobs
Contributing Editor
Cybrary of the Holocaust
ajacobs "at" (replace "at" by @ to avoid spam)
Jan Komski: Auschwitz through the Eyes of a Polish Inmate
Jan Komski was a Polish Catholic arrested while crossing the border in attempt to reach the newly formed Polish Army in France. One of the first prisoners at Auschwitz, he arrived there on June 14, and given the number In , Komski managed to escape but was later arrested again in the city of Krakow. Komski was lucky not to be recognized since his forged identity papers bore a different name. In addition to Auschwitz, Komski was imprisoned in Buchenwald, Hersbruck, Gross-Rosen and Dachau, where he was liberated in
After WWII, Mr. Komski immigrated to the USA, became a US citizen, and worked as an illustrator for the Washington post. He used to paint every day and, weather permitting, walked every day as well.
Mr. Komski passed away in , at the age of Till his last days, he remained alert, lively, very courteous and caring of others.
In memoriam of a gentile inmate in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Factory
Starvation (I)
Each prisoner was supposed to receive a daily ration of grams of bread, half a liter of ersatz coffee for breakfast, and one litter of turnip and potato soup for lunch.
Also, four times a week each prisoner was supposed to receive soup with 20 grams of meat. The soup rarely reached the prisoners. Food content ranged from 1, calories for light-work slave prisoners to 1, calories for slave prisoners performing hard labor.
The Kapos made sure that the thicker, more nourishing contents from the bottom of the food barrel, were given to his favorite prisoners. Others had to subsist on the watery substance from the top. Prisoners often had dysentery, swelling of limbs, caused by starvation. The SS and the Capos treated them as if they were healthy and so they had to march to work every morning.
The SS doctors calculated that a prisoner could exist on such daily food ration for three months. Then he was supposed to die.
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Appell (Roll Call) (I)
"At almost each block, beside the men standing in line, bodies of… persons are lying. These are the victims of the night that have not lived to see the day. Even yesterday they were standing numbers at the roll call and today they lie, lifeless and motionless. Life is not important at the roll call. Numbers are important. Numbers tally. How horribly they are looking, as if returned from the war. These are the marks of yesterday's work." Zalmen Gradowski (), In Amidst a Nightmare of Crime. Auschwitz State Museum.
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Warmth The prisoners used the 15 minutes of free time before the roll, trying to stay warm.
| "Ecce homo“ (Latin: "This is a Man") This man is being released from the camp hospital. He is considered fit to work. |
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Scraping the bottom of the pot. Fill me, the Hole. |
Jews being arrested in a Polish town. Children were as well enemies of the Third Reich. Million children were murdered by the Germans during WWII. |
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The Black Wall, in the courtyard of Block 11, where many innocent people were shot at the base of the neck. About 20, people were executed here between and The officer in the picture is Lagerführer Altmeier, the camp's chief officer at the time of Komski's escape. The man doing the shooting is Rapportfürher Gerhard Palitsch. He himself shot most of the 20, men, women, and children murdered at this wall.
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Food line in the main camp (Auschwitz I).
| Administrative Punishment
When something unauthorized was found on a prisoner, like an extra piece of bread, he was subjected to this punishment. Komski himself hung like this an hour a day for three consecutive days, because he brought food and medicine back to the camp after a day at work |
Hangings and Eating
This is what starvation can do to good people. Constantly surrounded by death and suffering, they have grown accustomed to sights like this. The hanging body of a fellow inmate will not deter them from their meagre ration. (Painting in the Auschwitz Museum) |
These men were assigned the work of collecting the dead each day and taking them to the crematorium. They were called the leichenkommando, literal translation: corpse squad.
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A Photo to Take Home | |
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Panorama of Auschwitz Birkenau “The Jewish Death Camp” | |
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Human Horses | |
Men Barbers in the Women’s Camp | |
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Liberation!
Last updated January 30th,