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Press Information published by the International Auschwitz Committee

12.11.2022

Remembering the world-renowned writer and Auschwitz survivor Tadeusz Borowski who was born 100 years ago on 12 November 1922.

 
 
Tadeusz Borowski, Polish writer (* 12 November 1922 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine; † 3 July 1951 in Warsaw). Image: KGS/IAC Berlin

Tadeusz Borowski, Polish writer (* 12 November 1922 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine; † 3 July 1951 in Warsaw). Image: KGS/IAC Berlin

 

 

 

To this day, his two collections of stories: Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories, and This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, both published in Poland in 1946, remain particularly disturbing and moving accounts of the horrors in Auschwitz for readers of classic world literature.

Tadeusz Borowski was born as a member of the Polish minority community in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr 100 years ago, on 12 November 1922. Later, while living with his family in Warsaw, he graduated from an underground lyceum in 1940 during the German occupation of the city. In 1943 Borowski was arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was liberated by American troops in Dachau on 1 May 1945. In 1946 he returned to Poland from a camp for “displaced persons”. He became one of the first writers to record the experiences in Auschwitz in the form of stories which became world renowned. The collections of stories published in 1946 in Poland: Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories, and This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, are particularly disturbing and continue to move people around the world to this day. In his Nobel Lecture, Imre Kertesz spoke of Borowski’s “stark, unsparing and self-tormenting narratives” to which he first turned as fundamental, authentic sources for his own literary work. Tadeusz Borowski died young: On 3 July 1951 he took his own life in Warsaw. He was 28 years old. In Berlin Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, paid tribute to Tadeusz Borowski and his work as follows:

"Tadeusz Borowski described the unbearable, horrific and humanly unimaginable world of Auschwitz as it truly was, and as he experienced it. Every single one of his sentences is borne along by the agony and despair that took hold of him in Auschwitz and never left him afterwards. Even though for him, a life after Auschwitz became unbearable, his voice still remains audible to this day, reminding us of what happened, and what can happen."

 
 
 

For further Information

Christoph Heubner

Executive Vice President
International Auschwitz Committee
Phone ++ 49 (0)30 26 39 26 81