Jadwiga Ankiewicz

unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of room to post information on topics like this where I live. so once again, I'll be taking these posts down. I don't have the time to fight it honestly. I was informed that they appear to be fake. they're definitely not fake.

(English: The diary of Jadwiga Ankiewicz, written in the concentration camp at Majdanek in 1943, is the only original testimony written in its entirety within the camp's walls. This story is critical and deserves to be remembered.)

There are some stories that history forces us to remember, and then there are those that seem to whisper to us across time, demanding to be heard. For me, it is Jadwiga's story.

Jadwiga was imprisoned at KL Lublin, more commonly known as Majdanek, during World War II. Yet, in the face of unspeakable horror, she did something extraordinary. She wrote. Her diary, penned between January 15 and May 17, 1943, stands as the only known original testimony written in its entirety within the camp's walls. Carrying a notebook and pencil was a capital offense, so every word she jotted down was an act of quiet, profound defiance.

She was a very talented writer. In the face of horror at Majdanek, her demeanor was unflinching. What strikes me most is her unique cursive script and, as the museum describes it, her ability to keep her head up with a positive attitude. Her writing is not just a historical document; it is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. And it is documentation of what happened to her before she was supposedly released and joined the resistance force.

A Personal Journey to This Discovery

My own journey to find this diary was a lesson in persistence. I reached out to several institutions for help with research on related materials, but most showed little interest. It was disheartening. Some of the replies I received were one sentence replies stating, "I'm afraid not". They never bothered to ask who I was or what materials I was working with. It left me speechless and in disbelief.

That is why I am incredibly grateful to the State Museum at Majdanek. Of all of the folks I've interacted with in this arena, it is evident they have a current understanding of the depth of what happened before and after. Not only did they reply to my emails with kindness and professionalism, but they also provided me with scanned documents to work with before I even return. Their dedication to preserving this history, and helping others do the same, stands in stark contrast to the indifference I encountered elsewhere.

The Diary Itself

Thanks to their work, this invaluable diary has been published in a beautiful English-language edition. The book contains a reprint of the original diary, a full transcription, and extensive historical commentary that details Jadwiga's life, her family's fate, and the process of bringing this testament to the world. It was made possible through a grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The folks at the State Museum at Majdanek are clearly dedicated to remembrance.

You can find the diary and learn more about it at the museum's official bookstore: Majdanek. 15 I–17 V 43 r. Diary.

If you are going to purchase this book, I recommend that you order it directly from the Majdanek book store. Here is the English language link. https://ksiegarnia.majdanek.pl/en_US/p/Majdanek.-15-I17-V-43-r.-Diary/273

The book was only released in 2020 so you can be sure that you get an authentic copy of it.

Echoes across the Vistula

Kraków, Poland

Kraków, Poland
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

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© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton. All rights reserved. All original text, photographs, and processed imagery on this page, including hyperspectral reconstructions, abundance maps, classification maps, anomaly maps, and any other algorithmically derived visualizations, are the sole intellectual property of Bryan R. Hinton. The underlying spectral data, latent representations, and intermediate pipeline outputs are likewise reserved. No portion of this material may be reproduced, redistributed, modified, displayed, or used to train, fine tune, or evaluate machine learning models without prior written permission. Brief quotation for the purposes of criticism, scholarship, or review is permitted under standard fair use principles, provided attribution is given.

Majdanek

Majdanek mausoleum. Personally photographed by me at Majdanek. This is a primary record of my visit.
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

Inside wall at Majdanek
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

I took both of these photos while walking around Lublin, Poland.

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© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton. All rights reserved. All original text, photographs, and processed imagery published here, including hyperspectral reconstructions, abundance maps, classification maps, anomaly maps, and any other algorithmically derived visualizations, are the intellectual property of Bryan R. Hinton. The underlying spectral data, latent representations, and intermediate pipeline outputs are likewise reserved. Archival documents reproduced on the site (e.g. scans held by the Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, or other public repositories) remain in the public domain or under their original licensing; only the accompanying captions, commentary, and any derivative analysis are © Bryan R. Hinton. No portion of the copyrighted material above may be reproduced, redistributed, modified, displayed, or used to train, fine tune, or evaluate machine learning models without prior written permission. Brief quotation for the purposes of criticism, scholarship, or review is permitted under standard fair use principles, provided attribution is given.

KL Birkenau · The Outer Perimeter

Auschwitz II-Birkenau
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

This is a photo that I took while walking around Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Oświęcim, Poland. The camp is huge. The barracks in the distance are to the left of the barracks where Edith Frank, Anne Frank, and Margot Frank stayed. Otto Frank stayed at Auschwitz I. Anne was moved between Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The two camps are only a few kilometers from each other in distance. While medical studies were conducted at both camps, some of the specific medical studies were conducted in the barracks that are in the background in this photo (specifically to the right of the train tracks as you walk in the main gate).

Another significant event that took place within Birkenau was the only armed revolt in the camp’s history. On 7 October 1944, the Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria, rose up at Crematorium IV. After setting the building on fire, they cut through the wire, fleeing from the burning crematorium into the fields beyond the fence. The SS ran them down and shot them all.

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Places of Memory · KL Auschwitz I · The Watchtower

Oświęcim, Poland
—

Watchtower · Auschwitz I
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

Auschwitz I was surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence punctuated by guard towers at regular intervals. The towers stood on the outer perimeter; the fence was electrified at 400 volts. Between the inner fence and the blocks was a gravelled three-metre strip — the "neutral zone" — where prisoners could be shot on sight by the guards in the towers. Their function was custody: to ensure that the people inside could not leave until the state had decided how they would.

On 3 September 1944, the last large transport from the Netherlands departed the Westerbork transit camp for Auschwitz. It arrived at the new ramp inside Auschwitz II–Birkenau on the night of 5–6 September, after two and a half days in locked cattle wagons. Of the 1,019 Jews on the manifest, four were Franks. They appeared in sequence: Margot at 306, Otto at 307, Edith at 308, Annelies Marie at 309. After selection, 371 people from the transport were sent directly to the gas chambers; 648 were registered into the camp administration. The women remained at Auschwitz II–Birkenau. Otto was sent on foot to the men's camp at Auschwitz I. On 30 October, Margot and Anne were selected for transfer to Bergen-Belsen; the transport departed the night of 1 November and arrived on 3 November. Edith was left behind at Auschwitz II–Birkenau and died there on 6 January 1945.

The Westerbork camp kept its own register. Her entry is on page 40. The card is pink. Transport: 3-9-44. Naam: FRANK. Voornamen: Annelies, M. Geboren: 12-6-29. Adres: Merwedeplein 37, Asd. It is the last document in the state's custody of her to record the street where she lived.

Westerborkregister · Frank, Annelies M. · transport 3-9-44
Nationaal Archief, Den Haag · 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539 · public domain

At Bergen-Belsen, Margot and Anne were registered again and given new prisoner numbers. Shortly before British forces liberated the camp on 15 April 1945, the SS burned the prisoner registration records. The numbers Anne and Margot were assigned at Bergen-Belsen are not known. For the last four months of their lives, no surviving document names them. They died there, almost certainly in February 1945, of typhus.

For six years, the paperwork caught up slowly. The two oldest documents in her death file are forms from April 1951, when the newly established Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten — the Committee for the Reporting of the Decease of Missing Persons — wrote to the Dutch Red Cross and to the Amsterdam civil registrar to ask what was known. The Red Cross filed the Committee's request against its own record: "dossier NRK 117266. Cf. concl. RK † 31 Maart 1945 te Bergen Belsen / Dld." — conclusion: died no later than 31 March 1945 at Bergen-Belsen. The Amsterdam civil registrar confirmed that no death certificate had been issued. Six years after Anne Frank's death, the municipal record said only that she had vanished and had never been declared dead.

On 7 May 1954, Johannes Kleiman, Otto Frank's colleague and one of the helpers who had hidden the Franks, wrote to the Committee on Otto's behalf, asking that the declarations for Margot and Anne be processed. The Committee acknowledged receipt on 4 June. The declaration itself was issued on 29 July 1954, in The Hague. It is the document reproduced below.

Aangifte van overlijden · No. 107658 · 's-Gravenhage, 29 Juli 1954
Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten · Nationaal Archief 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539

The declaration is a typed form on light paper, numbered No. 107,658. Stamped at the top: AFSCHRIFT — copy. The printed Dutch is dense with legal procedure: Krachtens art. 2 van de Wet van 2 Juni 1949 (Stbl. No. J 227) doe ik U hierbij aangifte van het overlijden van de hieronder vermelde vermiste. By virtue of article 2 of the Law of 2 June 1949, I hereby declare the death of the missing person named below. The filled-in carbon strikes are faint: Op een en dertig Maart negentienhonderd vijf en veertig is in Bergen-Belsen in Duitsland overleden: Frank, Annelies Marie. The date is written in longhand Dutch — een en dertig Maart — the certainty the facts didn't support, spelled out word by word.

The form was sent to the Amsterdam civil registrar. Three months later, on 29 October 1954, the registrar entered the death in the municipal register in faint purple hand at the lower right: Reg. A/105. Fol. 9. Initialled and filed.

Archiefkaart · Frank, Annelies Marie
Cites overlijdensakte · Burgerlijke Stand Amsterdam · Reg. A 105, Fol. 9 · d.d. 29-10-1954

The archiefkaart is Amsterdam's internal reference card for that registry entry. Printed fields in Dutch: Naam, Voornamen, Geboren op, Overleden op, Overlijdensakte opgemaakt, Bijzonderheden. The handwriting fills them in. Born 12 June 1929. Died 31 March 1945. Filed at Amsterdam on 29-10-54. Bijzonderheden (particulars): blank.

The working card that produced the date survives in the Dutch Red Cross Information Bureau's persoonsdossier on Anne Frank. It is pencil and ink, stamped 22 January 1952, a year after Brilleslijper's statement. In the clerk's hand at the bottom, boxed off from the rest, is the conclusion: Overleden te Bergen-Belsen niet eerder dan op 1.3.45 en uiterlijk 31.3.45. No earlier than 1 March, no later than 31 March.

Carthoteekkaartje · Frank, Annelies Marie · d.d. 22-1-1952
Nederlandse Rode Kruis, Informatiebureau · Nationaal Archief 2.19.288, inv.nr. 101677 · vervroegd openbaar gemaakt oktober 2023

The date 31 March 1945 is a bureaucratic default. It was the Committee's standard practice to date unknown deaths at the last day of the assumed month when a witness statement could establish the month. The witness statement was Lientje Brilleslijper's, given to the Dutch Red Cross on 22 January 1951. She said Anne and Margot died "around March 1945." The Committee picked March 31. No one then knew, and no one now knows, when Anne Frank actually died.

Her name also appears on a typed list. Lijst No. 1908. Every entry on the page is a Frank. She is fifth down: Annelies Marie, Frankfurt am Main, 12-6-1929, Bergen-Belsen, 31-3-1945. Six rows below her: Aron Moses Edward, Rotterdam, 7-8-1910, Polen, 31-3-1944. Place of death: Poland. The last day of March. The same administrative default, one year earlier. Near the top: Andries, Tiel, 4-3-1914, Omgeving van Auschwitz, 30-4-1943 — surroundings of Auschwitz, the last day of April. The list is one of many. This sheet was typed on 29 April 1959. It covers the letter A through the start of B.

Concentratiekamp · Lijst No. 1908 · Frank (A–Ba), page 14
Typed list of Dutch concentration-camp victims · d.d. 29-4-1959

She arrived under a tower like this one. She left as Reg. A 105, folio 9.

Sources

Transport list — numbers 306, 307, 308, 309 (Margot, Otto, Edith, Anne Frank). Nederlandse Rode Kruis, Den Haag: Transportlijst Westerbork–Auschwitz, 3 september 1944 (inv. nr. 1066, blatt 7). Otto Frank is listed at number 307 as "Frank Otto 12.5.89 Kaufman." Cited via the scholarly apparatus of the Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Auschwitz-Birkenau: selection at the ramp, separation of men and women; arrival confirmed on the night of Tuesday 5 to Wednesday 6 September 1944; 371 of 1,019 selected directly for the gas chambers, 648 registered into the camp administration. Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Selections upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau; Auschwitz I: the men in the Stammlager.

The new internal Birkenau ramp (Neue Rampe), operational from May 1944. Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświęcim): The unloading ramps and selections.

Auschwitz I — double barbed-wire fence, watchtowers, electrified at 400 V, the "neutral zone." Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau: Watchtowers and fence system (Former Auschwitz I site).

Transfer of Margot and Anne to Bergen-Belsen (selected 30 October 1944; transport departed 1 November; arrived 3 November). Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Journey to Bergen-Belsen; Arrival at Bergen-Belsen.

Destruction of Bergen-Belsen prisoner registration records by the SS before liberation. Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen (Lower Saxony): Register of Names; The Dead of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

Westerbork transit camp — site memorial and documentation. Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork (Hooghalen): kampwesterbork.nl.

Westerbork records as archived in the International Tracing Service. Arolsen Archives (Bad Arolsen, UNESCO Memory of the World): Westerbork Assembly and Transit Camp records (DE ITS 1.1.46).

Anne Frank's Jewish Council index card (Amsterdam). Arolsen Archives: Index card from the Jewish Council card file in Amsterdam — Annelies Maria Frank.

Date of death of Anne and Margot Frank — the 31 March 1945 administrative default. Anne Frank House: Sources for the date of death of Anne and Margot Frank in Bergen-Belsen (2015). Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Death of Anne and Margot Frank. Based on Lientje Brilleslijper's 22 January 1951 statement to the Nederlandse Rode Kruis (file 117266, Carthoteekkaartje Afwikkelingsbureau Concentratiekampen); official date set by the Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten, Dutch Ministry of Justice. Underlying archival research: Raymund Schütz, Vermoedelijk op transport (Master's thesis, Archival Science, Universiteit Leiden Instituut Geschiedenis, 2010).

Edith Frank — death at Auschwitz II–Birkenau, 6 January 1945. NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies (Amsterdam): niod.nl. Corroborated by the Anne Frank House Knowledge Base.

Westerborkregister — transport card for Annelies Marie Frank, transport of 3 September 1944. Pink preprinted card recording surname (Frank), given names (Annelies, M.), date of birth (12-6-29), home address (Merwedeplein 37, Amsterdam), transport date (3-9-44), and register page (Blz. 40). Preserved in Anne Frank's VP-dossier (Vermiste Personen) as supporting documentation consulted by the Committee in 1954. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag: Ministerie van Justitie / Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten, toegangsnummer 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539. Publicly accessible; no copyright restrictions ("Volledig openbaar. Er zijn geen beperkingen krachtens het auteursrecht").

Aangifte van overlijden van vermiste (declaration of death of a missing person) — Annelies Marie Frank, No. 107,658. Issued in 's-Gravenhage (The Hague) on 29 July 1954 by the Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten (Ministry of Justice), a body established under the Wet van 2 Juni 1949 (Stbl. No. J 227) to produce paper closure for Dutch residents missing from the war. Entered by the Amsterdam civil registrar on 29 October 1954 in the Register van Overlijden, Register A 105, Folio 9. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag: toegangsnummer 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539. Publicly accessible; no copyright restrictions. The same document is catalogued at Yad Vashem, Record Group O.41, item 5222601. The full chronology of the Committee's handling of Anne Frank's case — April 1951 inquiries to the Dutch Red Cross and Amsterdam civil registrar; Kleiman's 7 May 1954 letter on behalf of Otto Frank; the Committee's 4 June 1954 acknowledgment; the 29 July 1954 declaration; the 29 October 1954 Amsterdam registration — is set out in the Nationaal Archief's public exhibition page, Het overlijden van Anne Frank wordt vastgesteld.

Carthoteekkaartje — NRK Information Bureau conclusion card, 22 January 1952. Handwritten index card summarising Brilleslijper's statement and establishing the administrative bracket for the date of death: Overleden te Bergen-Belsen niet eerder dan op 1.3.45 en uiterlijk 31.3.45. References NRK Information Bureau Report 6/XIV No. 102, Opsporing Joodse Personen (Search for Jewish Persons). Preserved in Anne Frank's persoonsdossier at the Dutch Red Cross. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag: Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis — Informatiebureau: Persoonsdossiers, toegangsnummer 2.19.288, inv.nr. 101677 (persoonsdossier Anne Frank, vervroegd openbaar gemaakt / released ahead of schedule, October 2023).

Archiefkaart — Frank, Annelies Marie. Amsterdam civil registry reference card citing the overlijdensakte at Register A 105, Folio 9, d.d. 29-10-1954. The Stadsarchief Amsterdam holds archief- and persoonskaarten under toegangsnummer 30238, and cards of deceased persons are publicly accessible online at archief.amsterdam. The archival provenance of the specific scan reproduced above is not established here.

Typed concentration-camp victim list reproduced above. Header: CONCENTRATIEKAMP — Lijst No. 1908. Column headers: Naam / Voornaam / Plaats en datum van geboorte / Plaats en datum van overlijden. Page 14 of a larger series; typed footer dated 29 April 1959, with bilingual Dutch-French labels par typ and par contr. The format is consistent with Nederlandse Rode Kruis compilations from the postwar Afwikkelingsbureau Concentratiekampen, but the archival provenance of the scan itself is not established here.

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© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton. All rights reserved. All original text, photographs, and processed imagery on this page, including hyperspectral reconstructions, abundance maps, classification maps, anomaly maps, and any other algorithmically derived visualizations, are the sole intellectual property of Bryan R. Hinton. The underlying spectral data, latent representations, and intermediate pipeline outputs are likewise reserved. No portion of this material may be reproduced, redistributed, modified, displayed, or used to train, fine tune, or evaluate machine learning models without prior written permission. Brief quotation for the purposes of criticism, scholarship, or review is permitted under standard fair use principles, provided attribution is given.

Places of Memory · KL Auschwitz I

Oświęcim, Poland
—

Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau are in Oświęcim, Poland which is about an hour from Kraków.

I took these photos at Auschwitz I.

These brick buildings comprise the majority of Auschwitz I. There are 28 of them. They are referred to as blocks. Many of them have underground areas.
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

This is a photo of the stairwell that leads to the underground area in Block 11. Block 11 was a punishment block and the basement contains different types of punishment cells. I will not be going into any detail regarding the punishment methods and activities that occurred in these areas as it is sensitive material.
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

The discussion of the things that occurred within this block at Auschwitz I is sensitive to many people. But just as important, there is an equal or greater amount of dismissal, denial, and distortion of what really happened. Remembrance is important, and an acute awareness of what is going on now – in and across our world – will prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.

If you can't make it to Poland, I recommend visiting the Washington DC United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. As of a few weeks ago, a new exhibit was announced in a partnership between the United States and Auschwitz for an exhibit. Here is the press release page.

The Wall of Death between Block 10 and Block 11 at Auschwitz I
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

Suitcase with the name "Anna Kraus" behind glass at Auschwitz I
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

Suitcase with the name "Sara" behind glass at Auschwitz I
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

Systematic renaming of Jewish individuals and families occurred before, during, and after the war. This persecution continued. These people were told they would begin a new life with work. Here is the luggage they brought with them on the train.

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A thousand years on Polish soil

 Fields near Cienin, powiat słupecki. Six hours after Majdanek.
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton

Three million Polish Jews were murdered. Much of the killing was carried out on that same soil: at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibór, Bełżec, Majdanek, and Chełmno, all of them Nazi German camps and killing centers built in occupied Poland. Whole towns where no one came home. A civilization of a thousand years, destroyed in five.

The ideologies behind these crimes do not vanish by themselves. Each generation must carry that weight, and act on it.

The fields look ordinary now. The forests have grown back. The track is still there.

What remains is the duty to remember precisely. The names. The places. The dates. The silence in those places now is not empty. It is the shape of what was taken.

This is a shared history, and it cannot be told without Poland. For nearly a thousand years, from the Statute of Kalisz in 1264 through the academies of Kraków and Lublin, the printing houses of Warsaw, and the streets of Wilno, Polish Jews built one of the great civilizations of Europe. They were Polish citizens. They wrote in Polish, in Yiddish, and in Hebrew. They fought in Polish uprisings. They are buried in Polish soil.

To study this history through the objects, documents, and testimonies that preserve it, I recommend:

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Warsaw

Ośrodek „Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN”
Lublin

Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw

In Remembrance. In Honor. For the names without graves.

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