ARBEITSKREIS FUER HEIMAT-, DENKMAL- UND GESCHICHTSPFLEGE ST.GEORGEN/GUSEN
Plattform 75 JAHRE REPUBLIK
KZ Mauthausen-GUSEN Info-Page
Sculpture in KZ Gusen
The KZ Gusen Rosaries
Since there were hundreds of priests and thousands of Polish intellectuals
at the KZ Gusen Camp and since every religious practics were forbidden
in that camp, 3 secret Rosaries were produced by Polish KZ Gusen inmates
between 1943 and 1944. All of this Rosaries were filled with ashes from the
KZ Gusen Crematorium.
The tradition of praying a secret Rosary at KZ Gusen started
in October 1940 when an SS-man forced a Polish priest at KZ Gusen
to eat his Rosary prior to killing him by heavy beating.
At first a group of prisoners gathered regularly to form a
"Living Rosary" with their bodies.
- Middle of 1943
- The Joyful Rosary
- This first Rosary was produced of 59 small granite-stones by
Spanish inmates in the KZ Gusen Stone-Quarries, where thousands
of inmates were exterminated by hardest labour and other cruelties.
Each granite stone has a dimension of aprox. 1 cubic centimeter
and contains ashes of the KZ Gusen Crematorium. In fact, each
of that "pearls" is a small urn. Each "pearl"
was given to an other member of the "Living Rosary"
with the task to save it for the time after liberation.
- In August 1960 this Rosary was given to the altar of
"Jasna Gora" at Czestochowa.
- Late 1943
- The Painful Rosary
- The shoting of a 17 year old boy that came into KZ Gusen Camp
with his brother was the motivation to manufacture a second Rosary within
the KZ Gusen Concentration Camp.
- This rosary was produced of wood from the gallow of KZ Gusen
and was also filled with ashes from the crematorium.
- In October 1979 this Rosary was given to the altar of the
Santa Anna Church at the "Krakowskie Przedmiescie" suburb
of Warszawa.
- July 1944
- The Glorious Rosary
- This Rosary was produced because some Americans that came down
from their airplane on parachutes near the KZ Gusen Camps were shot
hanging on their parachutes by SS-men.
- So, the prisoners organized some plexi-glass of the crashed airplane
and manufactured 55 further cubes that were filled with ashes too.
In October 1980 this Rosary was given to the altar of
the Cathedral of Wroclaw.
Information credit:
- Jean Majerus, Ein Polnischer Rosenkranz des Dankes aus Mauthausen-Gusen, Die Warte Nr.13/1522, 27. April 1989
- Stanislaw Koprowski, Trzy czesci rozanca wykonane przez byliych wiezniow obozu koncentracyjnego Gusen podoboz Mauthausen w latach 1942-1944, Warszawa 1983
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Most recent updates of this page were made on
970602 by Rudolf A. HAUNSCHMIED