Danuta Czech (1922 – 4 April 2004) was a Polish

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

historian and deputy director of the

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ( pl, Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau) is a museum on the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim (German: ''Auschwitz''), Poland. The site includes the main concentration camp at Auschwi ...

in Oświęcim, Poland. She is known for her book ''The Auschwitz Chronicle: 1939–1945'' (1990).

Background

Czech was born in

Humniska Humniska ( uk, Гумниська, ''Humnys’ka'') is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Brzozów, within Brzozów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Brzozów and sout ...

, Poland. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, her father, Stefan Czech, was a member of the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...

who spent time in the Auschwitz,

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

and

Dora-Mittelbau Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour f ...

concentration camps. Czech attended the St. Kinga gymnasium in Tarnów, graduating in 1939, then the commercial lyceum, also in Tarnów, in 1941. According to the museum, she became a member of the Polish resistance, along with her father. From 1946 to 1952, she studied sociology at Jagiellonian University, Kraków, obtaining a master of philosophy degree. In 1955 she began work as a researcher with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, eventually becoming its deputy director.

''The Auschwitz Chronicle''

Almost 1,000 pages in length, ''The Auschwitz Chronicle'' is a meticulous chronicle of events in the Auschwitz concentration camp from construction to liberation. According to the Auschwitz museum, the book became Czech's life's work: "No serious scholarly work on Auschwitz could fail to cite her study."

Selected works

*(1984) with Jadwiga Bezwinska (eds.). ''KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS: Höss, Broad, Kremer''. New York: Howard Fertig. *(1990). ''The Auschwitz Chronicle: 1939–1945''. New York: Holt. First published in installments by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in 1958–1963. Also published as ''Kalendarium wydarzen w obozie Koncentracyjnm Auschwitz-Birkenau 1939–1945''. *(1996) with

Franciszek Piper Franciszek Piper (born 1941) is a Polish scholar, historian and author. Most of his work concerns the Holocaust, especially the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Dr. Piper is credited as one of the historians who helped establish a mo ...

and Teresa Świebocka. ''Auschwitz: Nazi death camp''. Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. *(2000). "A Calendar of the Most Important Events in the History of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp". In

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czech, Danuta 1922 births 2004 deaths Historians of the Holocaust in Poland Jagiellonian University faculty People from Brzozów County 20th-century Polish historians Polish women historians