Danuta Czech
Danuta Czech (* 1922 in Humniska near Brzozów ; † April 4, 2004 ) was a Polish historian .
Life
Until 1939 she attended the St. Kinga High School in Tarnów . In 1941 she graduated from the Handels-Lyceum. She later studied from 1946 to 1952 at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow , where she obtained a master's degree in sociology .
During the war, she and her father Stefan Czech played an active role in the resistance movement. Her father, who was a member of the Home Army , was the head of a mechanic's shop at the state nitrogen factory in Mościce near Tarnów. He was 43 years old when the Germans arrested him. They deported him to the Auschwitz concentration camp on April 20, 1943 . He was later a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp and finally in Dora-Mittelbau . He narrowly escaped death during the evacuation of the camp in 1945 when he escaped from a column of prisoners a few kilometers outside Gardelegen . More than 1000 prisoners died there who were burned alive in the Isenschnibbe field barn in a Nazi final phase crime .
Certainly influenced by the blows of fate of her father, Danuta Czech decided in 1955 to take a position at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim . Over time, she performed various tasks there until she finally became the museum's deputy chairwoman.
In addition, she testified as an expert in several trials in Germany against SS men working in Auschwitz.
plant
Danuta Czech was the author of numerous publications on the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Many of her works have been published both abroad and in Poland.
Her life's work was the Auschwitz Chronicles, which described the events in the camp on almost 1000 pages. This work is a basic work of information about Auschwitz. Even in retirement, she did not stop working on it. The museum published its chronicles in its series Zeszyty Oświęcimskie (Auschwitz Review) from 1958 to 1963. Revised and expanded editions are e.g. B. the German version of 1989 Calendar of the events in the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau 1939-1945 , the English version Auschwitz Chronicle 1939-1945 , published in 1999 in the USA and Canada, a Polish edition in book form from 1992 and a new American version from the Year 1997.
Publications
- Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945 . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-498-00884-6 .
- Danuta Czech: Kalendarz wydarzeń w KL Auschwitz . Oświe̜cim-Brzezinka: Wydawn. Państwowego Muzeum w Oświe̜cimiu-Brzezince, 1992, ISBN 83-85047-04-2
- Wacław Długoborski , Franciszek Piper (eds.): Auschwitz 1941–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Oswiecim: Publishing House of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1999, in it: Volume 5: Danuta Czech, Aleksander Lasik, Stanisław Kłodziński , Andrzej Strzelecki: Epilog. ISBN 83-85047-76-X
Web links
- Literature by and about Danuta Czech in the catalog of the German National Library
- Literature by and about Danuta Czech in the WorldCat bibliographic database
- Obituary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
- Review of statements in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Italian translation of the calendar as an online PDF version
proof
- ↑ Distribution in Germany: Metropol Verlag , Kurfürstenstrasse 135, 10785 Berlin
- ↑ Reviews - Newsletter No. 19. In: fritz-bauer-institut.de. Fritz Bauer Institute , 2000, archived from the original on August 24, 2001 ; retrieved on July 16, 2016 : "A detailed bibliography which, in addition to scientific accounts, source editions and testimonies from survivors, also lists sources in fifteen archives"
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Czech, Danuta |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish author |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1922 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Humniska , Brzozów |
DATE OF DEATH | April 4, 2004 |