#krystyna trzesniewska

[stillunusual]

A Polish slavic victim of Auschwitz used as an unofficial poster child for the Israeli Defence Forces SOURCE: https://twitter.com/AntisemitismEye/status/1354379519608557573 I'm not sure who the woman in the photo on the right is, but the young girl on the left is Krystyna Trześniewska, a Polish slavic victim of Auschwitz. She was born on 8th December 1929 in Majdan Królewski and was deported to Auschwitz five days after her thirteenth birthday during "Aktion Zamosc", a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Nazi Germany in the Zamojszczyzna region of occupied Poland. She was Auschwitz prisoner number 27129 and perished in the camp just five months later, on 18th May 1943. I totally get the point that this Twitter user is trying to make, but it's clearly inappropriate to abuse Krystyna Trześniewska's memory by using her Auschwitz registration photo in this way (especially as it's been posted alongside a quote from a Poland-hating bigot like Benjamin Netanyahu). Her short life ended in an incredibly tragic way, and like all victims of Auschwitz, she has the right to be remembered for who she actually was, especially as she may have relatives who are still grieving for her. All requests for correction - including one from the Auschwitz Memorial Museum - were ignored. Sadly, Krystyna Trześniewska's memory has also been abused by others - including PBS Learning Media (@pbsteachers on Twitter), who portrayed her on their website as an anonymous "little Jewish girl".

[ssmiles-on-foil-blog]

Krystyna Trzesniewska

[stillunusual]

A Polish slavic victim of Auschwitz falsely portrayed by PBS Learning Media as a "little Jewish girl in Auschwitz concentration camp museum" SOURCE: https://twitter.com/AuschwitzMuseum/status/1206939252208144384 The picture is actually of Krystyna Trześniewska, a young Polish victim of Auschwitz. She was born on 8th December 1929 in Majdan Królewski and was deported to Auschwitz five days after her thirteenth birthday. She was prisoner number 27129 and perished in the camp just five months later, on 18th May 1943. The image that PBS Learning Media uploaded to their website is of a photo that was taken at the Auschwitz Memorial Museum, showing a red flower that was placed in front of one of Krystyna Trześniewska's Auschwitz registration photographs, which is on display at the museum (all new prisoners were forced to pose for three pictures after having their heads shaved and changing into their prison uniforms - which usually consisted of a profile shot, a facial portrait and a photo in which they wore a head covering). Her registration photos are also featured during the Auschwitz sequence in Ron Fricke's excellent film "Baraka". According to PBS, its Learning Media portal "helps you transform learning".... However, before attempting to do that on the subject of Auschwitz it might help if they actually learned a few basic facts about the camp themselves. For example, the fact that when KL Auschwitz was established in 1940, its initial purpose was the internment of Polish slavic prisoners, who made up the majority of the inmates until 1942. According to Franciszek Piper, former head of the historical department of the Auschwitz Memorial Museum, between 140,000 and 150,000 Polish slavs were interned at Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1940 and 1945, and 70,000 to 75,000 died there as victims of executions, medical experiments, brutality, starvation and disease. It really is the height of ignorance to assume that anyone pictured in a stripy uniform during World War 2 must be Jewish.... Krystyna Trześniewska was deported to Auschwitz during "Aktion Zamosc", a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Nazi Germany in the Zamojszczyzna region of occupied Poland, which is another subject that PBS Learning Media probably don't know much about.... Before invading Poland at the start of the Second World war, the Germans had already formulated a plan (Generalplan Ost) to turn all of Eastern Europe into the "lebensraum" (living space) of Greater Germany. This plan explicitly required the complete destruction of the Polish nation. After taking control of the Polish territory assigned to them in the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Germans incorporated western Polish lands directly into the Third Reich, while the rest became an occupation zone known as the "General Government" which was intended for German colonisation that would initially reduce the Polish population to the level of serfs, before their eventual extermination. The ethnic cleansing of the Zamojszczyzna region around the city of Zamość was carried out as part of this greater plan (and indicates what the implementation of Generalplan Ost would have meant for the entire Polish population if the Germans had been able to do it). Mass expulsions took place between November 1942 and March 1943 on the direct orders of Heinrich Himmler, and resulted in the clearing of 300 Polish villages (Jews who lived in this region had already been rounded up and sent to Bełżec extermination camp during Operation Reinhard). Some of the Polish children from Zamojszczyzna were stolen from their parents after being selected for forced Germanisation. Others were sent to Kinder-KZ Litzmannstadt, a concentration camp for Polish slavic children that the Germans created within the Litzmannstadt ghetto.  "I have seen with my own eyes how the Germans took children away from their mothers....The act of their forcible separation shook me terribly....The Germans beat them with whips until the blood flew in case of slightest opposition, mothers and children alike. One could hear moaning and crying throughout the entire camp on those occasions....I have also seen small children being killed by the Germans" – Leonard Szpuga, a farmer expelled from Topólcza. Approximately 116,000 people - including 30,000 children - were rounded up and sent to forced labour camps or to the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Majdanek. At Auschwitz, at least 200 Polish children from Zamojszczyzna were murdered with phenol injections to the chest. The Germans planned to replace the Polish population of Zamojszczyzna with at least 60,000 ethnic Germans before the end of 1943. However, the ethnic cleansing and subsequent German colonisation of Zamojszczyzna was fiercely resisted. As well as helping the local population to escape the round ups, several thousand forest fighters of the Polish resistance began engaging German forces in the region in December 1942 and attacking villages settled by German colonists, some of which were destroyed. After halting their operations early in 1943 the Germans counter-attacked in June, with major anti-partisan actions and terror directed against the civilian population (Aktion Wehrwolf), but were never able to subdue the resistance. The Germans only managed to settle 9,000 colonists in the first half of 1943 and an additional 4,000 by the end of the year. Every victim of Auschwitz has the right to be remembered for who they actually were. Their identities should be respected, especially as they may have relatives who are still grieving for them. When the Auschwitz Memorial Museum asked PBS to correct their description of Krystyna Trześniewska's photo they initially changed "little Jewish girl" to "Polish Catholic girl" (without identifying her by name) but then removed the image from their website. Sadly, her memory has also been abused by others - including the Twitter account @AntisemitismEye, who decided to use Krystyna Trześniewska as an unofficial poster child for the Israeli Defence Forces. PBS Learning Media were also guilty of uploading one of the Auschwitz registration photos of another Polish slavic girl who was murdered at Auschwitz - Czesława Kwoka - and claiming that she was a "Jewish boy". When asked to make a correction by the Auschwitz Memorial Museum, they reacted by removing the photo rather than describing it accurately. Apparently, after realising that these victims of the Nazis were Polish and not Jewish, they no longer mattered....