Oświęcim II, Warszawa

Oświęcim II is Franciszek Strynkiewicz’s sculpture, set between the Old Town’s defensive walls near Podwale and Rycerska. The memorial’s sandstone base carries a bronze figure of a naked woman holding an infant. Her body is shown in decay, and the pose conveys anguish and terror.

This is an allegory of suffering and martyrdom at Auschwitz-Birkenau. At the inner defensive wall, the compact work sits amid the masonry of the Zachwatowicz passage. Strynkiewicz made the sculpture in 1945, although another date given for its creation is 1948.

It was unveiled in 1957 and installed here in 1976. The contrast is deliberately hard to absorb: a small human figure, exposed and devastated, enclosed by the massive fabric of Warsaw’s restored walls.