Antoni Gościński, Feliks Kamiński and the resistance of the medical prisoner staff in concentration camp Gusen.

Abstract

This article examines the resistance of medical prisoner personnel in the Gusen concentration camp, starting from 1941. It raises the question of whether we can indeed categorize this resistance as organized or whether the actions were predominantly carried out by individual persons or small groups. In addition, this article deals with who the protagonists of the resistance were and how they proceeded in their actions. It also considers whether and to what extent the resistance of the medical prisoner personnel played a role in the liberation of the camp. Throughout the article, the focus is on the persons of Antoni Gościński and Feliks Kamiński, who are said to have played a key role in connection with the resistance group. A central source for this research are the accounts of survivor Zbigniew Wlazłowski, whose insights on this topic have already been translated from Polish to English in the "Medical Review Auschwitz." These accounts are compared with various materials from the collections of the Mauthausen Memorial and testimonies from further survivors. Thus, this article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the existence and operational capacity of the resistance among the medical prisoner personnel in the Gusen concentration camp.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.57820/mm.comments.2024.02