Irena Strzelecka (4 January 1940 – 31 May 2017) was a Polish historian and senior custodian of the

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum () is a museum on the site of the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland. The site includes the main concentration camp at Auschwitz I and the remains of the concentration and e ...

in Poland. She was awarded the Knight's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

for her work on the history of the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. The author of over 30 articles on the camp, Strzelecka wrote about its hospitals, its medical experiments, and the situation of its female prisoners. She was the author of several articles in the five-volume monograph ''

Auschwitz 1940–1945 ''Auschwitz 1940–1945: Central Issues in the History of the Camp'' is a five-volume monograph about the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. Written by researchers at the Auschwitz-Birke ...

'' (2000), including on the camp's construction and the punishment of prisoners; she also helped to retrieve and document the history of several of the Auschwitz subcamps. With

Franciszek Piper Franciszek Piper (born 1941) is a Polish scholar, historian and author. Most of his work concerns the Holocaust, especially the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Dr. Piper is credited as one of the historians who helped establish a mo ...

, she edited a series on Polish political prisoners sent to Auschwitz from Kraków, Lublin, Radom and Warsaw. Strzelecka was born in

Przemyśl Przemyśl () is a city in southeastern Poland with 56,466 inhabitants, as of December 2023. Data for territorial unit 1862000. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously the capital of Prz ...

. A graduate of the history and philosophy department at

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

, she joined the Department of Historical Research of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in 1965.

Selected works

*(2008). ''Medical Crimes: The Experiments in Auschwitz''. Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. *(2009). ''Medical Crimes: The Hospitals in Auschwitz''. Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. *(2010). ''Punishment in Auschwitz''. Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. *(2016). ''Women in Auschwitz''. Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

References

External links

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strzelecka, Irena 1940 births 2017 deaths Historians of the Holocaust in Poland Jagiellonian University alumni Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta People from Przemyśl 20th-century Polish historians 21st-century Polish historians Polish women historians

Selected works

See also

References

External links