FRANCISZEK TARGOSZ
Born
September 7, 1899 in Lipnik, Poland; died September 10, 1979 in Bielsko-Biała,
Poland
Background
Targosz studied art in Vienna,
served in the Austrian army during World War I, and in the Polish army 1919-21.
Shortly thereafter, he worked as a salesman for a chemistry firm. An avid collector of military paraphernalia,
he belonged to the Society for the Army Museum and the Dorotheum in Vienna.
Arrest and Deportation to Auschwitz
Targosz
was arrested in Bielsko on December 18, 1940, and on the same day deported to
Auschwitz, receiving prisoner number 7626.
The Auschwitz Camp Museum
Targosz
made numerous sketches of horses and military scenes that led fellow prisoner
and artist Wincenty Gawron to make a drawing of Targosz on a horse and assert
that "[Targosz's] horses reflected a deep reality...that only a passionate
rider and cavalryman could draw this way." Targosz's works also impressed
Auschwitz commandant Höss, who approved of Targosz's idea of a camp museum. Targosz was named head of the museum, founded
in October 1941, that was not only a collection of objects but also a desirable
work assignment for prisoners that provided them with art supplies and afforded
them the opportunity to make more private images.
Work Assignments at Auschwitz
His various work
assignments included the Bauhof (storage
area for building materials), Strafkompanie
(penal company), Kiesgrube (gravel
pit), Tischlerei (carpentry workshop),
Malerei (painting workshop), Glaserei
(glazier's workshop), and Poststelle
(post office). The last position enabled
Targosz occasionally to smuggle photographs and messages past the censors. Suspected of belonging to an underground resistance
group, Targosz was transferred to barrack 11 on September 25, 1943, but was
subsequently released back to labor details.
Liberation and After
With
the evacuation of Auschwitz on January 18, 1945, Targosz was sent to Mauthausen
on January 21, 1945, and liberated by the American army at the Melk subcamp
on May 5, 1945. After the war, he returned
to Poland to become Deputy Director, Curator, and Conservator of the Auschwitz
Museum, positions from which he was dismissed in 1954 for convening an unofficial
conference that criticized the behavior of visiting Soviet delegations and sought
to redirect the museum's focus. Targosz also testified at the 1947 Kraków trials
against Höss and other SS
officers and submitted an important deposition used in the 1964 Auschwitz trial
in Frankfurt.
Bibliography:
Archives and
art collection at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.
Fritz
Bauer Institute and Staatsanwaltschaft, Frankfurt: records of the Frankfurt
Auschwitz trial 4 Ks 2/63, v. 94, containing Targosz's testimony on August 23,
1962, 18717-37, and v. 74, deposition in Bielsko-Biała district court, 13905-22.
Goldmann,
Sybille and Myrah Adams Rösing. Kunst zum Überleben: Gezeichnet in
Huener,
Jonathan. "German Deeds, Polish
Soil, Jewish Shoah: Auschwitz Memory and the Politics of Commemoration."
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998.
Jaworska, Janina. Nie wszystek umrę... Warsaw, 1975.
Milton, Sybil and Janet Blatter.
Art of the Holocaust. New York, 1981.