On April 26 (Saturday) at 10 a.m., The Remembrance Museum of the Land of Oświęcim Residents invites you to a historical walk around the former Barrack Settlement and its surroundings (currently the area of Zasole in Oświęcim). Participation is free.
Last year’s outdoor event in the “Meeting with History” series, dedicated to the topic of expulsions, attracted a great interest. For this reason, we will continue presenting historical stories in this formula. This time, we invite you to join us for a walk and a viewing of the buildings that, at the beginning of the 20th century, were part of the Barrack Settlement. We will also see some other important sites located near the settlement.
Barrack Settlement, also known as the New Town, was a very significant place, although it is now very well known nowadays. It is enough to mention that, in addition to thousands of migrants leaving impoverished Galicia for Prussia and further on to America, Silesian insurgents and Poles expelled from Zaolzie also came here. The brick barracks buildings, abandoned by Polish soldiers, were used by the Germans in 1940 to establish KL Auschwitz on this site.
Marek Rawecki, in his article titled “Selected problems from the History of Oświęcim and Brzezinka” (Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Śląskiej” seria: Architektura z. 38/2000), quotes the founders of the Oświęcim Industrial Society. In a specially prepared brochure from 1918, they wrote:
“…the new town, covering an area of 50 morga of land, was equipped with a railway track, a complete network of roads and sidewalks, a sewer system, waterworks, an electric power station (…) a disinfection and bathing facility with a laundry, a surgical and infectious disease hospital, a post and telegraph office, a police and gendarmerie station, a labour exchange building with a theatre, and a whole range of other brick buildings needed for camp administration. Additionally, 22 brick buildings were constructed to house 3,000 workers, along with 90 wooden buildings capable of accommodating 9,000 workers.”
We will begin our walk at 10:00 AM at the Remembrance Museum of the Land of Oświęcim Residents, located at 2A Maksymiliana Kolbego Street in Oświęcim, with a short lecture about the history of the Barack Settlement.
During the walk through these historical sites, we will see, among others: the Old Theatre, the buildings of the former Polish Tobacco Monopoly, we will search for the site of the former barrack chapel, stop by Haus 7, the buildings of the former camp of State Office of Public Security (PUBP), the former Galvanizing Plant, and the former headquarters of Zofia Biesiadecka’s travel agency. The event, which will last approximately three hours, will end at the railway station.
Registration for free participation accepted by phone at: +48 33 447 40 84. The number of participants is limited.
If any of the participants has documents, photos, or other memorabilia of relatives who lived in the Barack Settlement, we kindly ask you to bring these items to the meeting on April 26.
