14 June 1940

KL Auschwitz (KL – Konzentrationslager – concentration camp) was established in 1940 by Germans for Poles. In time, it became the largest German Nazi concentration camp for prisoners of different nationalities and at the same time the biggest mass extermination center of European Jews. Photo: Fragment of a plan of the Polish Army barracks in Oświęcim before 1939.

Germans introduced brutal terror in occupied Poland. Existing prisons and camps became overcrowded after mass arrests of Polish citizens. The Nazi authorities faced the necessity of creating new places of isolation.

The convenient location of Auschwitz (German name of Polish Oświęcim) and the possibility of using the abandoned buildings of former Polish military barracks decided that the SS authorities issued an order to establish a new camp in the suburbs of this town.

At the beginning it was supposed to be a temporary camp for 10,000 Poles before their deportations to the camps within the Third Reich. This concept, however, quickly changed, and KL Auschwitz gradually became one of the largest camps not only for Poles but also for citizens of other countries occupied by Nazi Germany.

The photo: Message from SS-Brigadeführer Hanns Rauter to the President of Kattowitz District informing about a permission given by the General of the Air Forces Hans Halm to lease the buildings of the former military barracks for establishing the Auschwitz camp.

The date of June 14, 1940, the day when Germans deported to Auschwitz the first transport of 728 Poles, political prisoners, from prison in Tarnów is generally accepted as the date when KL Auschwitz was put into operation. Tarnów prison was regarded by German authorities also as a collective point. People detained there came, among others, from Kraków, Zakopane, Rzeszów, Jarosław, Przemyśl, Sanok, and Nowy Sącz. 

The photo: the map of Tarnów during occupation with a marked marching route of prisoners of the first transport. The Collections of the District Museum in Tarnów

„We were walking grave and depressed. There were natives of Tarnów among us, for them it must have been the most difficult moment. Although the rout of our march was still empty, as if it led through the land of the dead, in spite of that, here and there in windows, we could see faces hidden behind sheer curtains. [...]

[...] Frightened faces that were disappearing quickly to appear after a while again. This town bewildered with terror was doubly affected by the departure of such a large transport. Many a mother bewailed a son here, many a wife – husband, or a child – a beloved father. People were crying. Suddenly, the unseen hand threw a bouquet of red flowers, it was trodden down fiercely by a marching gendarme”.

Prisoners of the first transport. Tarnów, June 1940. The photograph by an unknown author.

Mainly, young people were brought in the first transport: pupils; students; and soldiers. Among seniors there were representatives of different professions: lawyers; teachers; priests; laborers and peasants. Several people were of Jewish descent.

They had been arrested in autumn 1939 or spring 1940 (many for an attempt of escape through Hungary to the Polish Armed Forces in France or Great Britain). Others were arrested for resistance activities and within the A-B (Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion - Extraordinary Operation of Pacification) action carried out by the General Governor Hans Frank against the Polish intelligence. Moreover, in the first transport there were also people arrested during street round-ups.

Fragment of the register from the prison in Tarnów, among others, are listed names of prisoners who were brought in the first transport to KL Auschwitz on June 14, 1940.

Fragment of the register from the prison in Tarnów, among others, are listed names of prisoners who were brought in the first transport to KL Auschwitz on June 14, 1940.

“On June 14, 1940, from Tarnów departed a transport with several hundred prisoners who were sent to the concentration camp in Oświęcim. Unloading was accompanied with
screaming and shouting of kapos and SS-men, who with beating forced us to leave the wagon faster.[...]

[...] I wasn’t lucky because, when I was jumping off the wagon, I was hit with a club and a strong kick crushed my smallest toe. I felt the pain for the next few weeks”.

Throughout all the post-war years, many survivors gave various evidence of those cruel times. They brought surviving records and mementos to the Museum. They taught history and remembrance through telling stories, writing memoirs, and creating art works.

Jan Baraś-Komski "At Work" Germany 1945

Jan Baraś Komski „Kazimierz Jarzębowski’s portrait”, KL Auschwitz 1940

Władysław Siwek, “Punishment for escape”. The picture shows escapees' parents brought to the camp.