On June 14, 2024, the National Day of Remembrance of Victims of Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps took place in Harmęże and Auschwitz. The events had the honorary patronage of the President of Poland Andrzej DUDA.
The event began in the morning at the St. Maximilian Center in Harmęże. Mass was celebrated at the Conventual Franciscan church there, with the Most Reverend Roman PINDEL, Bishop of Bielsko-Żywiec, Poland, presiding. Others present included a dozen former Auschwitz prisoners; the Directors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum; Lech PARELL, the Director of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Repression, and Friar Mariusz KOZIOŁ, the Minister Provincial of the Province of St. Anthony and Bl. James of Strepar in Poland (Cracow). In addition, there was a large delegation from Poronin, the hometown of the Kupiec Brothers who are being commemorated this year. There was another large delegation from Harmęże, whose Conventual Franciscan church contains a priceless statuette entitled “Our Lady Behind Barbed Wire.” The statuette was carved in Auschwitz by Bolesław KUPIEC (camp number 792) one of the six Kupiec Brothers [they were also friars] who were imprisoned there.
At the beginning of the Mass, Friar Kazimierz MALINOWSKI, the Director of the St. Maximilian Center, announced: “During this Eucharist we want to pray for all the living and deceased who were prisoners of this terrible place of suffering and crimes against humanity.”
Bishop PINDEL spoke and briefly described the reality of the concentration camp during World War II. “The prisoners were in extremely difficult conditions. Transported to the camp and locked up behind barbed wire, they were stripped of everything that gives one a sense of dignity. They no longer had the use of their first and last names, but were treated like numbers. They were deprived of even the least sense of safety; their heads were shaved, they wore degrading clothing and they were exhausted by hard labor. They were constantly hungry, malnourished, sick and helpless in the face of the prevailing terror, with no hope of changing their condition. It’s no wonder that at some point, prisoners would just shut down and lose the will to live. Some chose to end it all by throwing themselves on the electric fencing. Others tried desperately to save themselves, no matter the cost. Still others chose to act heroically―giving their last morsel of bread to another, or sacrificing their own lives so that another prisoner could continue to survive a little longer. It is not difficult to reject God under such conditions….There were some, however, who found meaning in their stay there. They tried to resist or escape. They prayed to God for help. When someone found that help for himself, he was quick to use it to comfort others, encouraging them to pray, trust and persevere under conditions that could not be changed. He was able to share what he still had and turn it into life-saving medicine for others.”
After the Mass, those participating in the commemoration went down to the basement of the church where there is a display memorializing the first transport prisoner, Marian KOŁODZIEJ (camp number 432). Next, they headed to the Witold PILECKI State School of Higher Education in Oświęcim [Auschwitz], where they laid flowers at a memorial plaque commemorating the first transport of Poles to Auschwitz and at a monument dedicated to the Calvary Captain Witold PILECKI.
At 2:00 p.m., official delegations from state and local authorities and other institutions, as well as the organizers of the commemoration event, went to the Death Wall in the Auschwitz Camp and paid their respects to the prisoners murdered there. Bishop PINDEL and Friars Mariusz KOZIOŁ and Kazimierz MALINOWSKI prayed in front of the death cell of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe in Block 11.
In addition to the visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the commemoration organizers also arranged visits to the St. Maximilian Center in Harmęże and the headquarters of the Province of Cracow, among others.
The National Day of Remembrance was established by the parliament of the Republic of Poland and is celebrated on June 14. On that day in 1940, the first transport of 728 Polish prisoners arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp. They were assigned numbers 31 through 758. 325 of those prisoners survived, 292 died, and the fate of the remaining 111 is unknown. Initially, the camp was a deportation site for Polish intelligentsia, soldiers fighting against the occupation, scouts, students, and political prisoners. In total, about 150,000 Poles were imprisoned there, and nearly half died. Overall, the prisoners in Auschwitz came from more than twenty different countries. Eighty-five percent of them were Jews. The second largest group of deportees were Poles. Roma [Gypsy] and Soviet prisoners were also killed. The total number of victims is unknown. It is estimated that at least 1.3 million people died at Auschwitz.
Friar Jan M. SZEWEK
