Ocaliła go archeologia: działalność badawcza Kazimierza Gelinka (1882-1969) jako więźnia niemieckiego nazistowskiego obozu koncentracyjnego w Mauthausen-Gusen (Górna Austria) w latach 1940-1945

Abstract

During the archival study of the rich legacy of Prof. Józef Kostrzewski carried out by the author, a ready-to-be-published manuscript by Kazimierz Gelinek (1946) in Polish and English was found. It describes his archaeological activities 1940-45 as a prisoner at Mauthausen-Gusen, one of the most severe German Nazi concentration camps. Gelinek, a geographer and pre-war grammar school teacher with extensive archaeological field and museum practice in the Płock region, was ordered by the camp commanders first to form the excavation brigade of prisoners in order to examine several sites in the vicinity of the camp (the archaeologically rich region of Upper Danube valley), then to organize a small archaeological museum in one of the camp barracks and finally – to prepare a monograph of the excavated area that was handed to Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS and Gestapo and an enthusiastic amateur of archaeology, during his visit