You are here
Home > News > Painstaking research reveals fate of artist known as ‘Portraitist of Auschwitz’

Painstaking research reveals fate of artist known as ‘Portraitist of Auschwitz’

Until now, it was known only that Franciszek Jaźwiecki who captured the broken faces of his fellow inmates through hundreds of harrowing portraits, had been employed in the death camp’s paint shop.
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Previously unknown details of the fate of an artist known as the ‘Portraitist of Auschwitz’ have been uncovered thanks to a painstaking archival project to restore the identities and histories of the death camp’s victims.

Franciszek Jaźwiecki, a Polish political prisoner and artist who was deported to Auschwitz from Kraków was employed in the extermination camp’s carpentry workshop and paint shop.

Creating art was not allowed in Auschwitz and was treated by the SS as an act of resistance. A self portrait of Jaźwiecki (pictured) is one of the more than 100 of his portraits housed in the Auschwitz Memorial Museum.Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

During his time in the camp he captured the broken faces of his fellow inmates through the hundreds of harrowing portraits he sketched.

But just before the Germans abandoned the camp, they destroyed most of the documents they had created.

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Top