WITH HELP FOR PRISONERS
OF KL AUSCHWITZ
In towns located in the vicinity of KL Auschwitz, established in June 1940, prohibited aid activities were undertaken spontaneously by the local population from the very beginning. With time, entire families and groups of people related to them, friends and acquaintances, participated in such activities. Rushing to help, they did so, risking their own health and lives. Aid activities were organized secretly, observing all the rules of conspiracy. People living in the Oświęcim region, but also on its outskirts were involved.
Prof. Andrzej Linert*
An extensive and well-documented collective work of 640 pages entitled “Ludzie dobrej woli. Księga pamięci mieszkańców Ziemi Oświęcimskiej niosących pomoc więźniom KL Auschwitz pod redakcją Henryka Świebockiego.” Oświęcim 2005 (“People of Good Will. Book of remembrance of the residents of the Oświęcim region helping prisoners of KL Auschwitz edited by Henryk Świebocki”) describes the form of aid provided to prisoners and the organizational shape of this phenomenon that developed as a result. It contains 1,216 names of good-hearted people who were selflessly involved in aid activities during the occupation. The evidence collected there raises no doubts and is an expression of the enormous commitment of the Polish population to the prisoners, a testimony to the patriotism and heroism of residents of the Oświęcim region.
Unfortunately, for understandable reasons, further areas located outside the Oświęcim region and its immediate outskirts were beyond the scope of researchers’ interest. Aid was also organized there, as evidenced by the aid activities carried out from 1941 until the end of the camp’s existence by several female residents of Komorowice, a village located on the northern outskirts of Bielsko.
Territorially, according to official data from October 1, 1943, the village included Komorowice Śląskie and Komorowice Krakowskie. Komorowice Krakowskie, with its German name Batzdorf Ost, was inhabited by 3,487 people. However, 972 people lived in Komorowice Śląskie - Batzdorf West1. The percentage of the Polish population in both parts of Komorowice during the years of occupation ranged from 90% to 98%, and this population structure remained without major changes until the end of the war. In this situation, during the entire period of the Nazi occupation in Komorowice, it was not possible to create a strong German base that would radiate its political and social culture.
However, a small group of Polish people, despite the radical repressive measures used by the Germans, took up the fight against the occupier. Examples included aid activities for prisoners of KL Auschwitz, carried out risking their own lives in the name of solidarity and deep moral and ethical beliefs by a group of women from Komorowice. Their disagreement with the prevailing social conditions and rebellion against the crimes committed resulted in the collection of food, medicines and clothing, as well as in mediating forbidden correspondence of the imprisoned.
koleżankami. For some, this activity was a consequence of their closest family members or friends staying in KL Auschwitz, for others, it was selfless support for people in need and an expression of disagreement with the prevailing injustice. Such reasons primarily motivated the activities undertaken in January 1941 by Helena Kraus and Matylda Linert, née Pikoń, living in Komorowice Krakowskie, and