Jan Liwacz

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The entrance to Auschwitz I with the writing “ Arbeit macht frei ”.
Lettering with inverted B in Auschwitz I

Jan Liwacz (born October 4, 1898 in Dukla ; † April 22, 1980 in Bystrzyca Kłodzka ) was a Polish blacksmith and prisoner of the Auschwitz I concentration camp .

captivity

Liwacz was arrested in Bukowsko on October 16, 1939 , and deported to the Auschwitz I concentration camp on June 20, 1940 after prison stays in Sanok , Krosno , Krakow and Nowy Wiśnicz . In Auschwitz he worked as an art fitter and made railings, grilles, chandeliers and zodiac signs. In the main camp he was involved in the ironwork for the entrance gate. The upturned letter B of the cynical writing “ Arbeit macht frei ”, with the smaller bulge down, is understood as a protest action.

Several times he was in solitary confinement in the bunker of Block No. 11 for a few days, which he survived (from June 8, 1942 and from March 30, 1943). In December 1944 he was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp . In the Ebensee subcamp of this concentration camp, Liwacz was liberated on May 6, 1945. After the war he worked as a blacksmith in Bystrzyca Kłodzka.

In December 2009 the lettering was stolen by criminals and seriously damaged in the process. The perpetrators were quickly caught and the lettering restored.

Web links

Commons : Jan Liwacz  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jochen Boberg (Museum Education Service Berlin), Herman Simon (New Synagogue Berlin Foundation - Centrum Judaicum) (ed.): Art in Auschwitz 1940-1945. Book accompanying the exhibition of the New Synagogue Berlin Foundation - Centrum Judaicum, in the Cultural History Museum Osnabrück / Felix-Nussbaum-Haus and the Muzeum Tradycij Niepodleglosciowych w Lodzi, Rasch Druckerei und Verlag, Bramsche 2005, ISBN 3-89946-051-0 , p. 373, online: Exil Archive: Liwacz, Jan. 2009, accessed on June 17, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Cf. Ines Rensinghoff: Auschwitz-Stammlager - Das Tor> Arbeit macht frei < , in: Detlef Hoffmann (ed.): The memory of things: Concentration camp relics and concentration camp monuments 1945-1995 , Campus, Frankfurt / M.- New York 1998, pp. 238-266, here 260f.
  3. ↑ Jan Puhl: Eine bizarre Tat , in: Der Spiegel 48, November 29, 2010, p. 121f
  4. ↑ Joachim Mertes in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament on January 27, 2010: PDF
personal data
SURNAME Liwacz, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish prisoner in Auschwitz I concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Dukla
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1980
Place of death Bystrzyca Kłodzka