O porządkowaniu poobozowego świata. Sposoby postępowania ze szczątkami ludzkimi na terenach byłego KL Auschwitz-Birkenau od momentu ostatecznej
On the Clearing of the Post-Camp World. Ways of Handling the Human Remains at the Former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp from the Final Evacuation to the

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts to reconstruct the ways in which the living handled the human remains at KL Auschwitz-Birkenau from the final evacuation until the establishment of the museum. The first part of the text describes the appearance of the camp after the Germans had abandoned it leaving the bodies, bones and human ashes. It then reconstructs the following actions: collection of the corpses, removal of the dead from the hospital, inspection of the places where the human ashes were, autopsies, religious ceremonies undertaken by the former prisoners, Polish Red Cross volunteers, medical personnel, etc. The text shows that those actions resulted in a creation of a new post-camp order administered by the Polish and Soviet authorities, initially represented by the military men, the Polish Society of Former Political Prisoners (Polski Związek Byłych Więźniów Politycznych) and the Catholic Church. The last part of the article describes the way of handling the corpses which developed in opposition to the official practice. That alternative order was developed by those who looked for valuables in the former camp where the human remains were.

• Details
• Contents