Zalman Gradowski
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/%D7%96%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%9F_%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%93%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%99.jpg/220px-%D7%96%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%9F_%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%93%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%99.jpg)
Zalman Gradowski or Chaim Zalman Gradowski (1910 – 7 October 1944) originally from Suwałki,[1] was a Polish Jewish prisoner of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during the Holocaust in occupied Poland. He arrived in November 1942 aboard a Holocaust train from Kalabosin (see: Kiełbasin Sammellager servicing Grodno Ghetto,[2] possible spelling error). After "selection" his family members perished. He was sent to work in the Sonderkommando slave labour unit.[3]
Secret diary[]
In order to bear witness for future generations, Gradowski wrote a secret diary, describing his life and the camp. He buried his notebook in the camp as a time capsule. In it, Gradowski gave a detailed description of the extermination process in Birkenau. He was one of the key figures in the Sonderkommando underground at Auschwitz, where he was murdered during the revolt of 7 October 1944.[3][4][5]
A quotation from the diary is used as an epigram for the 2015 book KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps: "May the world at least behold a drop, a fraction of this tragic world in which we lived."[6]
The introduction of the book is him immortalizing his family and his last wish for them to not be forgotten. His murdered family was: his mother (Sarah), sister (Libe), sister (Esther Rokhl), wife (Sonia), Father and brother in law (Raphael and Wolf). All named members of his family were gassed for being “unfit”. His father, two brothers and another sister were also taken and he did not know what happened to them. He wrote of all of them in the introduction to his diary.
External links[]
- "The Literature of Destruction - Zalmen Gradowski, Ch. 93" (PDF). Brandeis University. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
Notes[]
- ^ Shulamit Lifshitz (2015). "Chaim Zalman Gradowski from Suwalki, Poland, born in 1910 to Shmuel and Sara". The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ^ POLIN (2015). "Kiełbasin, ul. O. Solomowoj - były nazistowski obóz tranzytowy". Kiełbasin transit camp. Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Yisrael Gutman, Michael Berenbaum (1998). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press. pp. 522–529. ISBN 025320884X. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ^ Michael Berenbaum. "Weeping Without Tears" (PDF file, direct download). Source: Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. 29, Jerusalem, 2001, pp. 433-446. Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. p. 3. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ^ Adamczyk, Kazimierz (11 May 2017). "Report and lament – Zalman Gradowski's notes from Auschwitz". Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica. 46 (8). doi:10.18778/1505-9057.46.09. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
- ^ Laqueur, Thomas (23 September 2015). "Devoted to Terror". London Review of Books. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
- 1910 births
- 1944 deaths
- Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp
- Polish diarists
- Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust
- Jewish writers
- Holocaust diarists