86 years after first transport to Auschwitz, survivors and officials honor victims at Death Wall ceremony
On the 86th anniversary of the first mass deportation to Auschwitz, survivors, state officials, and youth gathered at the Death Wall to honor the 728 Poles and Polish Jews who arrived on June 14, 1940, and the more than one million murdered at the camp.
The first transport
On June 14, 1940, 728 men arrived at the newly established German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz from a prison in Tarnów. They were mostly young Poles and Polish Jews, many of whom had tried to escape occupied Poland to join armed forces abroad. They were assigned camp numbers 31 through 758, following 30 German criminal prisoners brought from Sachsenhausen in May to act as functionaries. The first registered prisoner from the transport was Stanisław Ryniak, who received number 31.
A day of national remembrance
The 86th anniversary was marked on Sunday with a ceremony at the Auschwitz Memorial, held under the honorary patronage of Polish President Karol Nawrocki. Government was represented by Minister of Culture and National Heritage Marta Cienkowska. Commemorations began at the Death Wall between blocks 10 and 11, where twelve former prisoners who survived the camp joined official delegations and youth groups.
They quickly understood what hell of hatred and will to extermination they had fallen into.
Camp origins and structure
The camp was proposed in late 1939 by SS-Oberführer Arpad Wigand, who cited overcrowded prisons in Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin and a growing resistance movement. Heinrich Himmler issued the order to establish Auschwitz in early April 1940, and Rudolf Höss became its first commandant. The site's isolation, railway connections, and existing Polish army barracks made it suitable for rapid conversion and expansion.
- SS-Oberführer Arpad Wigand proposes establishing a concentration camp at Auschwitz.
- Heinrich Himmler issues the order to establish the camp.
- 30 German criminal prisoners arrive from Sachsenhausen to form the first functionary cadre.
- First mass transport of 728 Polish prisoners arrives from Tarnów, marking the camp's operational start.
- Auschwitz II Birkenau becomes the site of mass extermination of Jews as part of the 'Final Solution'.
- Red Army liberates Auschwitz; over one million murdered, including approximately 960,000 Jews.
Words from the gate
Kazimierz Albin, one of the 728 deportees, later recalled the speech given upon arrival by camp director Karl Fritzsch.
This is Konzentrationslager Auschwitz. As an element hostile to the German nation, you will be interned until the end of the war. Any signs of rebellion or insubordination will be suppressed ruthlessly. Resistance to authority, attempted escape – death penalty.
Personal memory and youth involvement
The International Auschwitz Committee, led by director Christoph Heubner, stressed the importance of engaging young people in preserving memory. A group of apprentices from Volkswagen AG attended, along with school students from Ujazd and the 'Tropiciele przeszłości' (Past Trackers) group. Marta Osińska, a granddaughter of camp prisoners and member of the group, described her family's losses and survival, noting that three brothers served with Major Hubal and later in the Union of Armed Struggle.
I am the granddaughter of KL Auschwitz prisoners. My grandfather Tadeusz died in KL Auschwitz, and my grandmother Jadwiga survived the camp hell. She was transported from Birkenau to Flossenbürg, where she was liberated by the Americans.
The scale of the crime
Initially a place of martyrdom for Polish patriots, from 1942 Auschwitz II Birkenau became the center of the mass extermination of Jews as part of the 'Final Solution'. By the time the Red Army liberated the camp on January 27, 1945, the Germans had murdered over one million people there, including approximately 960,000 Jews.
