Wanda Witek-Malicka, a historian at the museum’s research centre, had for years focused on child inmates of Auschwitz. But she had to abandon the difficult subject when she became a mother.
“At that moment, this particular aspect of Auschwitz history — children, pregnant women, newborns — I was in no state to handle it,” she told AFP.
“The emotional weight of the site and the history was too much for me,” the 38-year-old added.
Were the museum staff to reflect on the site’s history round the clock “we’d probably be unable to get any work done”.
Elsewhere at the site, conservator Andrzej Jastrzebiowski examined some metal containers once filled with Zyklon B, the poison gas used to kill inmates at Auschwitz.
He recalled his anger early on — he has worked at the museum for 17 years — when he had to conserve objects that had belonged to the Nazis.
“Later, I realised these objects had importance as evidence of the crimes committed here, and maintaining them is also part of our mission here,” the 47-year-old told AFP.
‘Give them a voice’
Jastrzebiowski and his colleagues at the high-tech conservation department are responsible for preserving hundreds of thousands of items, including shoes, suitcases, metal pots, toothbrushes, letters and documents.
Most of the items had belonged to inmates before being confiscated upon arrival.
The conservators are also responsible for preserving the camp barracks, the barbed wire, and the remnants of the blown up crematoriums and gas chambers and other ruins at the site.
