Living Shadows Story

Eugeniusz Tytyk (1920-2006) - An Auschwitz Survivor, My Father, My Hero on Squidoo

2006-12-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

Today is my father's - Eugeniusz Tytyk's - birthday. Yes, he was born on December 13, 1920 and would be celebrating his BD today... Unfortunately, he passed away last March.

Please visit the Squidoo lens -
Eugeniusz Tytyk (1920-2006) - An Auschwitz Survivor, My Father, My Hero on Squidoo in which I honored his life.

Thanks,

Ilona
Eugeniusz Tytyk (1920-2006) - An Auschwitz Survivor, My Father, My Hero

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Squidoo, WWII, Holocaust, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

American Chronicle: VERDICT ON AUSCHWITZ: The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial 1963-1965

2006-11-23T19:57:00.000-08:00

An article in American Chronicle presents VERDICT ON AUSCHWITZ: The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial 1963-1965 - a documentary film that attempts to capture the history of Auschwitz. according to the reviewer, the authors of the film do that very well.

"Verdict on Auschwitz" gives the detailed eye-witness accounts by victims, shows the painstaking organization of evidence by prosecutors, and the chilling testimony by the killers themselves. According to the reviewer, "...this film reveals more about the workings, mindset, and logic of mass murder than any film I know.”

Ilona
Eugeniusz Tytyk (1920-2006) - An Auschwitz Survivor, My Father, My Hero

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Squidoo, WWII, Holocaust, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

'Forgiving Dr. Mengele' - MOVIE REVIEW - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com

2006-11-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

"Forgiving Dr. Mengele" is a new documentary film telling the story of Eva Kor, one of the so-called "Mengele twins," who along with her sister was subjected to the Nazi doctor's experiments.

A review of that film was published by Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com.

In his book Living Shadows" my father Eugeniusz Tytyk also tells about Dr. Mengele - "The Angel Of Death" a Nazi doctor in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. My father survived there three selections to gas performed by that infamous war criminal.

Ilona
Eugeniusz Tytyk (1920-2006) - An Auschwitz Survivor, My Father, My Hero

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Squidoo, WWII, Holocaust, Joseph Mengele, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

"Auschwitz survivor fights for her art" - from Hamilton Spectator - News

2006-11-06T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting story about an artist who worked for Dr. Mengele in Auschwitz-Birkenau "Auschwitz survivor fights for her art" - published by Hamilton Spectator - News . The article was written by Ron Grossman from The Chicago Tribune.

Ilona
Eugeniusz Tytyk (1920-2006) - An Auschwitz Survivor, My Father, My Hero

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Squidoo, WWII, Holocaust, Joseph Mengele, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

Dr. Vrba - an enigmatic Auschwitz escapee

2006-10-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

Just recently I learned from Wikipedia that Dr. Rudolf Vrba died on March 27, 2006 - only 9 days after my father - Eugeniusz Tytyk - passed away.

I've never met Dr. Vrba, but while doing the research for my father's book I thought that it would be very interesting if those two gentlemen were able to meet and recall their Auschwitz experience.

Dr. Vrba was a Slovak Jew who spent 2 years in Auschwitz - from June 1942 to April 1944 (my father was there from January to December 1944). With the help of the camp underground, Vrba and another Jew-Slovak Alfred Wetzler escaped from the camp and got to Slovakia and then pass information to the Allies about the mass extermination in Auschwitz.

Their report - known as the Vrba-Wetzler report - was the first detailed information about the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp to reach the Allies that they accepted as credible (Witold Pilecki sent his report in 1943 to London but it was ignored). It is believed that the Vrba-Wetzler report saved lives of many Hungarian Jews - at least 200,000, although it was too late and almots half a million was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there.

After the war, Dr. Vrba emigrated to England and later on he came to Canada, becoming an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of British Columbia from 1976 until the early 1990s, specializing in neurology.

Dr. Vrba had a very colorful personality and was loved by his students. However, he also had many foes, because he charged that some of the Jewish leaders didn't do enough to stop the genocide of the Hungarian Jews. He was considered, though, as an expert on Holocaust and appeared as a witness in the 1985 Ernst Zundel trial, during which he had a heated exchange with Zundel's attorney - Douglas Christie.

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Squidoo, WWII, Holocaust, Rudolf Vrba, Ernst Zundel, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

My father's story on Squidoo

2006-10-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

If you haven't done it yet, please visit the Squidoo lens "Eugeniusz Tytyk (1920-2006) - An Auschwitz Survivor, My Father, My Hero" in which I summarize my father's life - especially his five years spent in the Nazi concentration camps and prisons. I show there a number of pictures, including those of very unique letters that my father sent to his mother from Auschwitz, the Moorlager and other palces of his imprisonment by the Nazis.

You can listen there to the audio excerpts from my father's book - "Living Shadows" and take part in the polls. Links to two very interesting YouTube videos about the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp are also included. Please note the picture showing my father's parents - my grandparents, Rozalia and Bazyli Tytyk - and read the short story about my grandfather who was killed during WWII, murdered by the Soviets (NKVD) - not the Nazis!

Please click here to see my Squidoo lens! Thanks!

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Squidoo, WWII, Holocaust, NKVD, Hitler, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

"The Red Violin" film and music in Auschwitz

2006-10-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

I've just seen a great movie made in Canada - The Red Violin which is a story of the passage of a violin across centuries and continents.

I liked the film, which is done pretty well; it received the Oscar for the Best Musical Score. I was impressed with the part taking plce in Shangahi under Mao during his Cultural Revolution. That part of world history is as tragic as what other totalitarians, like Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot did to the people. Imagine that Mao forbade owning violins and other Western instruments and would execute those who were playing European music!

It looks that even Hitler wasn't as crazy and as cruel as Mao because as my father tells in his "Living Shadows" book he allowed playing music in Auschwitz! There was a band there made of the political prisoners - some of them were great artists. They were giving concerts from time to time, usually to the SS staff and every day they were playing merry music for the kommandos (working team) leaving for hard, slave work outside the camps and coming back from that work.

Eugeniusz also describes how they were learning German songs they had to sing during their marches to work places and how they were changing the lyrics (which often were rather stupid) - just to have some fun. For example, the most popular song that every kommando was singing was "Rosamund". The prisoners changed the words to sound like this: "Rosamund, organize when you have time. When the kapo is chasing you, show him your ass., etc."

I'm telling about this particular song because is clearly shows what always was on the minds of the prisoners trying to survive another day in that hell on earth...

"Organizing" meant stealing, especially from the SS - whatever possible, whenever possible, as long as you're not caught, because if that happened you'd be killed. But does it make any difference when? If you don't steal, you'll have to suffer terrible hunger and you may not see another day...

Kapos were the leaders of the working teams - kommandos; at the beginning they were the worst criminals - murderers, rapists, etc. recruited from German prisons. At the end of war most of them were eliminated and replaced by political prisoners who were much better to the prisoners they had under them. Eugeniusz gives an example of his former teacher (professor M.) who was made a kapo in Birkenau, but he was treating all in his team very well and by doing that he saved many lives, including Eugeniusz's. Unfortunately, in rather ironic twist of events, professor M. stayed in Auschwitz-Birkenau camp until it was liberated by the Soviets in January 1945, but got sick soon after that and died.

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, The Red Violin, WWII, Holocaust, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

So few Auschwitz survivors are still alive

2006-10-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

My family was very happy to enjoy my father's presence for so long. Despite all the tortures and psychological abuse he suffered at the Nazis' hands and despite his hunger, exhaustive work and sicknesses he experienced in Auschwitz, the Moorlager and other Nazi concentration camps, he was relatively healthy and strong for many years, having only some heart problems.

Interestingly, during his stay here in Canada, the doctors discovered that he had not two - as most of the people - but four kidneys! Most probably that made him a bit stronger and helped him survive Auschwitz... At least that was one of the reasons, which he describes in his "Living Shadows" book.

My father died in March 2006 at age of 86. he was one very few still-living survivors of Auschwitz and other Holocaust tragedies. The following article tells about Sigmund Strochlitz - another Auschwitz survivor from Poland who just died at age of 86, which means that he was of Eugeniusz's age. By the way, spent 15 months in Auschwitz (Eugeniusz stayed there 11 months) and survived, like Eugeniusz, but his wife, parents and sister were killed there. After he came to the USA, was a member of the council that created the US Holocaust Memorial.

Norwich Bulletin - www.norwichbulletin.com - Norwich, Conn.

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, WWII, Holocaust, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

Articles about Auschwitz survivors

2006-10-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

I've just found two interesting articles about Auschwitz survivors:

Tel Aviv lawyer fights for Auschwitz survivor's heirs | Jerusalem Post

Holocaust - Memories from the Holocaust period

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, WWII, Holocaust, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Auschwitz survivor, Eugeniusz Tytyk

Geography and history lessons with Google Earth

2006-10-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

While doing our editing work on the material that my father Eugeniusz Tytyk left us to publish as a book about his 5 years spent in the Nazi concentration camps and prisons, we were looking for related online resources as well as books, magazines, maps, etc.

Readers of my father's "Living Shadows" book have another resource or rather tool created by Google - Google Earth that is included in Google Pack.

I highly recommend downloading that program and playing with it. You can easily visit the places where Eugeniusz was imprisoned, his trips with so called "transports" when the Nazis were sending him from one camp to the other, where he was born, where he lived, etc. It's a great educational tool for children, too - to learn both history and geography.

Google Earth is like a whole interactive atlas inside your computer, created by using satellite imagery. You can point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you would like to visit. The program uses Google search to show local points of interest and facts and provides addresses of local businesses such as hotels and restaurants as well as driving directions.

It takes some time to learn using Google Earth, but it really is worthwhile. Unfortunately, this program is not available yet in every country and the detail of presentation varies from country to country.

The whole world is covered with medium resolution imagery and terrain data and you will be able to see not only major geographic features, but also man-made developments such as towns, although not detail of individual buildings.

However, additional high-resolution imagery details for individual buildings are available for most of the major cities in the US, Western Europe, Canada, and the UK! You can see 3D buildings in 38 US cities and detailed road maps for the US, Canada, the UK, and Western Europe.

Will you be able to use Google Earth? Most probably, as it takes advantage of the 3D graphics capabilities that are now standard on most computers. If you have graphics card from the following manufacturers, you should be fine: NVIDIA, ATI, 3D Labs, Intel, Matrox, and S3.

Good luck and have fun with Google Earth!

Ilona

P.S. In my Squidoo lens about my father I listed a number of links to the best resources on the Internet that give 3D/panoramic views of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Please look at the "Auschwitz Documentary" module.

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, political prisoner, WWII, Holocaust, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Nazis, Google Earth, Squidoo lens, Eugeniusz Tytyk

Leitmeritz camp - Eugeniusz's final camp

2006-10-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

Leitmeritz (Litoměřice in Czech) is a town in the Czech Republic, in Usti nad Labem Region. It is one of the oldest Czech towns located on the Labe River, approximately 72 km (45 mi) northwest of Prague, the Czech capital. Its population is about 25,000.

It is the place when my father's tragic war adventures finally ended. He came there with so called "death march", in which thousand of prisoners were forced to march in freezing weather, with thin clothes on and with little or no food. They were marching hundreds kilometers from Buchenwald to Leitmeritz. Many prisoners got killed by the SS guards, unable to walk fast enough; other inmates simply died from cold and hunger.

See the map showing this and other death marches at the end of WWII. That map comes from an excellent US Holocaust Museum website on death marches.

My father was strong enough to survive that death march and after he came to the Leitmeritz camp he was again a slave laborer - like all of the prisoners there. By the way, the place they were working was were interesting. It was an underground factory Richard I; it was located inside grottos hollowed out in a rocky mountain. There were dozens of most modern lathes there that were used to manufacture part tanks.

Another interesting fact that my father gives in his book "Living Shadows" was that the Nazis were treating the prisoners so bad that they were giving them so little food that they had to it grass and lignite coal that was mined there.

We couldn't find any material in English about this fascinating part of WWII history, however there is one website available in Czech language, with a number of great photos.

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, political prisoner, WWII, Holocaust, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Nazis, Leitmeritz, death marches, Richard-1, Buchenwald, Czech Republic, Eugeniusz Tytyk

Many lessons of patriotism

2006-10-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

So much can we learn from Eugeniusz how to love your home country. For her - Poland - he was able to give the ultimate sacrifice - his life... It's because of that love for his country he spent five years in the Nazi camps and prisons, including 11 months in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

In one of the chapters of his "Living Shadows" book Eugeniusz says that every Sunday the students were coming to the school and with the school banner at helm they were marching to the St. Trinity Garrison Church in Bielsko where a patriotic mass was celebrated. Nobody protested that and all kids were happy to come for this every-Sunday patriotic event. There were many of such events at that time as the whole nation was just ecstatic to have their beautiful country independent again. They were waiting for that very long - from 1795 till 1918 and when that finally happened they were very proud to be free again and they were ready to die for her.

Unfortunately, their freedom didn't last for too long and in 1939 Poland lost independence again - first when the Nazis captured most of the territory starting on September 1, 1939 and then the Soviets took the reminder on September 17, 1939, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Interestingly, the Tytyk family suffered at hands of both aggressors. Eugeniusz spent 5 years in the Nazi concentration camps and prisons, suffering tortures, beatings, hunger, sickness, hard slave work that could end with his death at any moment. Miraculously, he survived even though he had to go through the deadliest of the Nazi camps - Auschwitz-Birkenau. Unfortunately, his father - Bazyli Tytyk - got killed - not by the Nazis, but by the Soviets, murdered by the NKVD in Katyn, at the direct Stalin's order. Eugeniusz's mother also suffered during the war. She was evicted from their home and was forced to work very hard for the Wehrmacht - the German army.

Read about Eugeniusz's family history in his "Living Shadows" book.

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, political prisoner, WWII, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Nazis, Soviets, Katyn, NKVD, Stalin, Holocaust, Eugeniusz Tytyk, Bazyli Tytyk

Nazi concentration camps where Eugeniusz Tytyk was imprisoned

2006-10-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

My father became a political prisoner when he and two of his friends were trying to get to France to join the Polish Legions there so that they could fight the Germans whose army (Wehrmacht) invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.

They were sentenced to 3 years in prison that they were to serve after the war, but for the time being the Nazis sent them to the Moorlager - a concentration camp on the German-Dutch border in the Emsland region.

It was just one a number of camps and prisons that Eugeniusz Tytyk was imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII. The other concentration camps were: the worst of them - Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he spent 11 months (from January to December 1944), Buchenwald, Ohrdruf and Leitmeritz. Some of the prisons where he was doing his term included: Vienna and Stein An Der Donau.

In each of those places Eugeniusz was very close to death and could be killed or could die many times. He describes those "close encounters with death" in his "Living Shadows" book.

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, political prisoner, WWII, Nazi camps, concentration camps, death camps, Holocaust, Eugeniusz Tytyk

About my father's writing his book

2006-10-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

My father was an avid reader and a good writer. He was reading every day - especially books about WWII and detective stories. He also liked solving crosswords where he was able to use his vast knowledge.

We - his family and friends - were always encouraging him to write a book about his tragic experience from WWII, especially what happened to him in Auschwitz. Somehow he wasn't too keen on doing it even though his typewriter was always waiting with a clean sheet of paper. Perhaps it was too painful for him to go back to those tragic years and re-live those beatings and other sufferings and so many situations in which he could easily got killed or die from cold, hunger, sickness, etc.

Interestingly, my father decided to finally write his book when he was well over 70, during his visit in Canada when he learned how to use the computer. It was a little easier for him to use the keyboard instead of the typewriter, although not too easy because he was writing his story in Polish and the keyboard didn't have Polish characters! And there are quite a few more special characters in Polish alphabet...

Anyway, that's how my father finally wrote his book - between 1996-1998, more than 50 years after those tragic events had happened. But to make the book a bit "lighter" he also added some funny stories from his childhood and high school years. We edited his material, checked out the names, places, dates, etc. , added photos from our family archives and promised my father that we would publish his book. Easier said than done...

It wasn't so easy to publish "Living Shadows" - as he decided to call it, but we finally were able to do it - both in English and in Polish (it's called "Zywe Cienie" in Eugeniusz's mother tongue) at CafePress.com. The English version is available here and the Polish version - here.

My father was very happy and proud to see in print his memoirs. Unfortunately, soon after he got the books he died - on March 18, 2006.

Ilona

Technorati tags: Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, political prisoner, WWII, Nazi camps, Holocaust, concentration camps, death camps, Eugeniusz Tytyk

Welcome to my blog!

2006-10-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my blog. Please read the story about my father - Eugeniusz Tytyk.

I plan to use this blog is a commentary to my father's book - "Living Shadows - My Five Years As A Political Prisoner In Nazi Camps And Prisons" that is available here.

Thank you for your time.

Ilona