Tomasz Cebulski Ph.D., the man behind Polin Travel and Heritage Sky Pictures, has spent the last 20 years perfecting his knowledge on archival resources in Poland and Central Europe. He will be joining us live from Krakow to present this introductory program on why, when, and how to conduct genealogy research. Tomasz will share his favorite online resources before demonstrating how he combines research, maps, photo, video and drone documentation into short documentary films. Together, we will take a virtual visit to Częstochowa, once a vibrant center of Jewish life. Tomasz is our scholar-in-residence during our Jewish Journeys to Eastern Europe – but no plane ticket is needed for this  virtual program.

https://www.circle.org/cultural-events/a-taste-of-jewish-genealogy-journey-with-a-polish-scholar

On October 7, 1944, a revolt broke out in the Birkenau camp, organized by prisoners of the so-called Sonderkommando, involved in burning the corpses of people murdered in the gas chambers. The so- called Sonderkommandos were the last circle of the hell of the Nazi extermination camps.

This Wednesday, April 21 at 6 p.m. we invite you to a lecture by Dr. Tomasz Cebulski - "In the fight for a dignified death - the revolt of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau 1944". Live broadcast on TSKŻ's Facebook dr Tomasz Cebulski - political scientist, genealogist, guide to memorial sites. Author of the book "Auschwitz after Auschwitz" on the politics of remembrance, as well as numerous scientific and popular science texts. Since 2002, he has been managing the genealogical company Polin Travel, and from 2020 a new visual project at memorial sites called Sky Heritage Pictures. Scholarship holder of the Alfred Landecker Foundation, initiator and manager of the Flying Youth University project.

January 27, 1945, the date of liberation of Auschwitz- Birkenau is remembered today as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ironically this date didn’t mean freedom for most of the Auschwitz inmates, two weeks earlier they were forced into the death marches direction west. For those who will survive march, transportation, chaos, new camp registration freedom will come only in April , May 1945.

January 27, 1945 for the German-Nazis was yet another day for covering up the evidence of Auschwitz existence. Another day in the last months directed towards one of the last stages of each genocide DENIAL followed by SILENCE.

In some of the Auschwitz-Birkenau subcamp system of 48 satellite Auschwitz labor camps   the SS and Wehrmacht  conducted massacres of too weak , too sick or too exhausted inmates.

It is estimated that close to 1000 Auschwitz prisoners were brutally murdered on the “Liberation Day”.  For many inmates  it was a “Liberation without Freedom”. Major massacres were documented in  Auschwitz – Fürstengrube in Wesola – Myslowice , Auschwitz – Tschechowitz-Vacuum in Czechowice and  Auschwitz – Blechhammer in Blachownia Śląska.

The below commemorative program called the “Last Chords in the Auschwitz Universe” features a film  “Auschwitz – Furstengrube Liberation without freedom”   produced by Sky Heritage Pictures for the 76th Anniversary of the liberation of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The film is followed with an interview of  David Fligg Ph.D.  conducted by Tomasz Cebulski Ph.D on the live and death of Czech Jewish composer and pianist Gideon Klein (1919-1945). David Fligg is a musicologist and an author of the biography of Gideon Klein titled “Letter from Gideon”

January 17th , 1945 was the day of the last roll call in Auschwitz system . Over 67.000 prisoners of which close to 19.000 of women and over 48.000 of man were counted still alive. The next few days till January 21st were marked with a hectic evacuation of Auschwitz inmates direction west. In over 40 subcamps of Auschwitz scattered in southern Poland the SS guards formed a human chain of 56.000 of inmates and forced them to march for few dozens of miles towards rail junctions in Gliwice or Wodzisław Śląski. The winter in 1945 was brutal. Then came the rail transportation, often in open rail carts for hundreds of miles into the German Reich. The longest "death march" was 260 km from Neu-Dachs - Jaworzno to KL Gross-Rosen. Executions, sub-camps massacres and inmates exhaustion marked the evacuation path with thousands of corpses. It is estimated that up to 15.000 of inmates were murdered within the camp evacuation procedures. It was a LIBERATION WITHOUT FREEDOM as most of those who survived January were registered in other German Reich concentration camps with a vague hope to be liberated in April-May of 1945. This was the last chapter of German-Nazi genocide in which the perpetrators were denying the crime through evacuation and elimination of eye witnesses. Then comes the deafening SILENCE.

Let us break this silence participating in the commemorative event organized by Sky Heritage Pictures , Polin Travel and Taube Center marking the 76^th Anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz.

The hour-long program will include a film entitled Auschwitz – Liberation Without Freedom produced by Sky Heritage Pictures with current footage from the Auschwitz-Furstengrube camp followed by a discussion between our expert presenters