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2. Brotherhood in SufferingBrotherhood in Suffering
Brotherhood in Suffering features illustrations of life in
concentration camps by Auschwitz survivor Jan Komski.
These artworks provide us with documentation of the
suffering and death of the innocent Jews, Poles and other
victims at the hands of the Nazis.
Jan Komski was a Polish Catholic arrested while
crossing the border attempting to reach the newly formed
Polish Army in France. One of the first prisoners at
Auschwitz, he arrived there on June 14, 1940 and given the
number 564. In 1942, Komski managed to escape but was
later arrested again in the city of Krakow. Komski was
lucky not to be recognized and his new identity papers bore
a different name. In addition to Auschwitz, Komski was
imprisoned in Buchenwald, Hersbruck, Gross-Rosen and
Dachau, where he was liberated in 1945.
Brotherhood in Suffering
March 11th - June 25th
Opening: March 16th, 2006
Florida Holocaust Museum

3. Each prisoner was supposed to receive a
daily ration of 350 grams of bread, half a
liter of ersatz coffee for breakfast, and one
liter of turnip and potato soup for lunch.
Also, four times a week each prisoner was
supposed to receive soup with 20 grams of
meat. The soup rarely reached the
prisoners. Food content ranged from 1,300
calories for light-work prisoners to 1,700
calories for prisoners performing hard
labor.
The Kapo made sure that the thicker, more
nourishing contents from the bottom of the
food barrel, were given to his favorite
prisoners. Others had to subsist on the
watery substance from the top. Prisoners
often had dysentery, and swelling of limbs
suffering from a sickness known as
starvation disease. The SS and the Capos
treated them as if they were healthy and so
they had to march to work every morning.
The SS calculated that a prisoner could exist
on the daily food ration for about three
months. Then he was supposed to die.
Eating and Starvation

4. "At almost each block, beside the men standing
in line, bodies of… persons are lying.
These are the victims of the night that have not
lived to see the day. Even yesterday they were
standing numbers at the roll call and today they
lie, lifeless and motionless.
Life is not important at the roll call.
Numbers are important. Numbers tally. How
horribly they are looking, as if returned from
the war.
These are the marks of yesterday's work."
Salmen Gradowski (1973). in Amidst a
Nightmare of Crime. Oswiecim: Auschwitz State
Museum Publication.
Appell (Roll Call)

5. Warmth
The prisoners used the 15 minutes of
free time before the roll, trying to
stay warm.

6. This man is being released
from the camp hospital.
He is considered fit to work.
"Ecce homo“
(Latin: "This is a Man")

7. Scraping the bottom of the pot.
Fill me, the Hole.
Leftovers

8. Roundup
People being arrested in a
Polish town.
Children are also the enemies
of the Third Reich.

9. Murder by
The SS
The Black Wall, in the courtyard of Block 11, where many
innocent people were shot at the base of the neck.
About 20,000 people were executed here between 1940
and 1944.
The officer in the picture is Lagerführer Altmeier, the
camp's chief officer at the time of Komski's escape. The
man doing the shooting is Rapportfürher Gerhard Palitsch.
He himself shot most of the 20,000 men, women, and
children murdered at this wall.

10. Food line in the main camp
(Auschwitz I).
Looking for scraps

11. When something unauthorized was
found on a prisoner, like an extra
piece of bread, he was subjected to
this punishment. Komski himself
hung like this an hour a day for three
consecutive days, because he
brought food and medicine back to
the camp after a day at work.
Administrative Punishment

12. This is what starvation can do
to good people. Constantly
surrounded by death and
suffering, they have grown
accustomed to sights like this.
The hanging body of a fellow
inmate will not deter them
from their meager ration.
(Painting in Auschwitz
Museum)
Hanging and Eating

13. These men were assigned
the job of collecting the dead
each day and taking them to
the crematorium. They were
called the
Leichenkommando, literal
translation: corpse squad.
The Death Brigade

14. An SS Christmas Tree Ornament

15. Big escape

16. Photo taken an hour after Komski's arrival in Andrzej Harat's
house after his escape from Auschwitz.
From left: Mieczyslaw Januszewski,
Jan Komski(standing),
Otto Küsel, Boleslaw Kuczbara, Andrzej Harat and his daughter
Wladyslawa Harat.

17. Auschwitz-stable

18. A photo for the album

19. Canada kommando

20. Panorama of Birkenau

21. The identification

22. The loser

23. Hangig

24. Krematorium

25. Roll call

26. No escape no choice

27. Jobs for men in women’s camp

28. Evacuation

29. Horse stable barac

30. Sport

31. The arrival

32. Liberation

33. After the war, Mr. Komski
immigrated to the USA, became a US
citizen, and worked for the
Washington post as an illustrator for
many years. At 86, he is painting
every day and, weather permitting,
walks every day as well.
Mr. Komski passed away in 2002, at
the age of 87. Till his last days, he
remained alert, lively, very courteous
and caring of others.

34. Created by Agi
In memoriam
April 2006