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The poem "In the Bunker" was written on April 8th, 1945 by an anonymous prisoner. "Three-dimensional" is by Teresa Bromowicz. Teresa Bromowicz, born in 1912 in Zialonej, a Russian part of Poland, studied in Krakow and got her diploma in philosophy in 1933. During the German occupation, her family is harassed because of their German-sounding name. The Gestapo arrests her in August of 1944 and, after periods of incarceration, she arrives in Ravensbrück in December of 1944. She is freed from Ravensbrück by the Swedish Red Cross shortly before the end of the war and returns to Poland from Sweden. Teresa Bromowicz teaches Polish and the history of Polish literature in the secretly organized lessons in the concentration camp. She writes numerous ironic poems on everyday life in the camp, but also religious texts. According to her own statements, her poems from the period of imprisonment reflect "the longing for family and for home, the hope of returning home, the contempt of the enemies. Her fellow prisoners recovered their own memories and experiences and felt very connected by the poems". |
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"Bunker" was one of the words that inspired terror in the concentration camp. To be sentenced to this special imprisonment meant little chance of coming out alive. Of the often accompanying whippings on the bare behind, the condemned could - depending on their constitution at the time of the beating - barely survive more than twenty. 25 lashes delivered twice meant certain death. Anything and everything could be punished. Even the writing or ownership of poems. The Russian woman Zina M. Kudrjawzewa described how the SS guard Dorothea Binz one day found a piece of paper with a poem on her. She sentenced her to 15 lashes and a day without food. Later Zina M. Kudrjawzewa wrote another poem. Again the SS discovered her authorship and she received a tortuous punishment: three days in the bunker without food, for the most part spent standing in cold water. Constanze Jaiser |
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