Distinction for the Remembrance Museum

The Remembrance Museum has received a copy of the Christ of Auschwitz medallion. On the 99th anniversary of Zofia Posmysz’s birth, it was received by Remembrance Museum director Dorota Mleczko from former International Youth Meeting Centre director Leszek Szuster. The medal has an extremely interesting history. This is how Zofia Posmysz described it in “The Christ of Auschwitz”. “There is no crown on the temples. With a halo made of thorns, the artist crowned the name engraved on the reverse. The name is Oswiecim. A city like many in Poland, though they do have such a rich, long history. This medallion in the shape of a miniature gorget (collar) came into my possession one of the June days of the year 1943. It was offered to me by a prisoner whose name Tadeusz I was to learn later. This happened in the kitchen of the Auschwitz-Birkenau women’s camp.” That prisoner was Capt. Tadeusz Paolone, who used the surname Lisowski in the camp and was active in the camp resistance movement. The Germans executed him on October 11, 1943. The medallion was made by prisoner Viktor Tolkin. The author of ” The Passenger” died on August 18, 2022. She was buried at the Communal Cemetery in Oświęcim. She would have turned 99 on August 23 this year. On that day a mass was celebrated for her in the chapel of the Oświęcim hospice. Later, participants met at the International Youth Meeting Centre where former IYMC director Leszek Szuster presented copies of the Christ of Auschwitz medallions. Copy No. 21/30, with a certificate signed by Zofia Posmysz, was received by Dorota Mleczko, director of the Remembrance Museum. This is a great honour and a huge distinction for the museum, which opened to the public less than four months ago.