games in Auschwitz II-Birkenau in which he participated as a goalkeeper. The location of the football field in Birkenau was bizarre: it was built right next to the ramp, to which transports of people were brought, and near crematorium number III.
“I stood as a goalkeeper once. It was a Sunday. (…) I stood as a goalkeeper – with my back to the ramp. The ball fell out of bounds and rolled up to the fence. I ran after it. Lifting it off the ground, I looked at the ramp. A train had just arrived at the ramp. People started to get out of the freight wagons and walked towards the woods. (...) The procession continued slowly, and new people from the wagons were constantly joining it. Finally it stopped. People sat down on the grass and looked at us. I came back with the ball and kicked it to restart the game. It went from one foot to another and arched back to my goal. I kicked it out to the corner. It rolled into the grass. I went for it again. And lifting it from the ground, I stood still: the ramp was empty. There was not a single man left on it ... I came back with the ball and kicked it to the other corner. Three thousand people were gassed between the two corners behind my back.”
Tadeusz Borowski, Ludzie, którzy szli (The People Who Walked On), [in:] Opowiadania wybrane (Selected Stories), Warsaw 1971.
Summary
The exhibition “Sport and athletes in KL Auschwitz” has been prepared mainly on the basis of the archive materials and collections of Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. It can be viewed in block 21 at the former Auschwitz camp until March 31, 2022.