An exceptional collection of photographs depicting the deportation of the first Poles to the newly established German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, which took place 83 years ago on June 14, 1940, has been discovered and published. The author of the album is a Tarnów collector Marek Tomaszewski.
The discovered album contains 96 photographs. «It is a memento from the time of service, presumably belonging to one of the members of the German Order Police (Schutzpolizei) detachment stationed in 1940 in the lower barracks on Chyszowska Street (now Mościckiego) in Tarnów. His unit escorted a column of prisoners on 14 June of that year, who marched from the Tarnów bathhouse through Dębowa, Wałowa, and Krakowska streets to the railway ramp on today’s Bartla Street,» one reads in the introduction.
The photos also depict Schutzpolizei officers from the lower barracks in Tarnów, the passage of the unit through Zakliczyn, and scenes related to the second transport from Wiśnicz to Auschwitz camp on 20 June 1940.
Until now, historians knew only a few photographs from those tragic events. Now we can see an album that is a very significant historical source.
