Prisoner photo from Auschwitz, Courtesy Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim
WŁADYSŁAW SIWEK
|
Prisoner photo from Auschwitz, Courtesy Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim |
Born April 14, 1907
in Niepolomice, Poland; died March 27, 1983 in Warsaw, Poland
Background
Prior
to World War II, Siwek studied at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts and worked
for the Kraków Railway Headquarters.
Arrest and Deportation to Auschwitz
He was arrested
for resistance on January 14, 1940 and sent to Montelupic prison.
October 8, 1940, Siwek was deported to Auschwitz, where he was assigned
prisoner number 5826.
Art Produced at Auschwitz
He was initially
assigned to hard labor in the stone quarries and became emaciated and ill.
Siwek was then sent to the prisoner infirmary, where fellow artist and
prisoner Leon Turalski helped secure him an easier labor assignment with the
painters’ labor detail. May 1941 through September 1943, Siwek produced
calligraphy, portraits, landscape paintings, and hunting scenes for the SS.
He was also assigned by an SS officer to paint portraits of SS families,
which the officer later signed and sold, explaining to Siwek that prisoners
were not allowed to keep money. In addition
to these commissions, Siwek created over 2,000 clandestine portraits of fellow
prisoners.
Work Assignments at Auschwitz
Siwek was later
transferred to the construction office (Baubüro), where he worked more than a year on a model for the projected
expansion of Auschwitz.
Deportation to Sachsenhausen
October 29, 1944,
he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and assigned to work
at the Heinkel aircraft factories, where he also created portraits, caricatures,
and landscapes.
Liberation and After
Sachsenhausen was
evacuated in spring of 1945 and Siwek was liberated on May 3, 1945 need the
town of Schwerin. He returned to Poland
that year and made more than 50 paintings about his experiences at Auschwitz. 1948-53, he worked as an artist for the Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum and after 1953 lived in Warsaw, producing illustrations for zoological
and scientific publications.
Bibliography:
Archives and
art collection at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.
Goldmann,
Sybille and Myrah Adams Rösing. Kunst zum Überleben: Gezeichnet in
Jaworska,
Janina. Nie wszystek umrę... Warsaw, 1975.
Milton, Sybil and Janet Blatter. Art of the Holocaust. New York, 1981.