This year’s renovations in one of the prisoners’ barracks at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland has revealed a startling discovery. Upon pulling back the floorboards, 30 handmade chess pieces drawn on squares of cardboard were found in surprisingly good condition, despite being over 80 years old.
“Several drawings may be a bit blurry,” Elzbieta Cajzer, the Museum’s Director explained in a press release on the Auschwitz Museum’s website, “but the images of rooks, pawns, bishops, and knights are still easily distinguishable.”
The incomplete chess set has been carefully conserved and will eventually be a part of the museum’s permanent display. Cajzer also commented on the fact that the chess pieces were obviously designed to be hidden quickly,as such items of leisure were strictly forbidden in the camp where over 1.3 million people were subject to torture, starvation, and unfathomable cruelty during the primarily Jewish genocide known as the Holocaust that took place across eastern Europe during WWII between 1941 and 1945; 1.1 million of these Auschwitz prisoners were murdered, mostly in the camp’s gas chambers. An estimated 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust in total.
Information on the museum’s website further describes how contraband chess and card games were popular among the inmates because they provided a powerful source of mental respite in a place of abject suffering, but anyone found in possession of such items would be subject to severe brutality, even death. For this reason, the discovery of these chess pieces speaks volumes about the prisoners who were brave enough to create and hide them.
To choose one’s own way
Viktor Frankl, a well-known psychologist, philosopher and Auschwitz’ survivor, once said: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances — to choose one’s own way.”
The prisoners who risked their lives to play chess in secret must have painstakingly chosen bravery over terror and valued human connection over stark isolation.
Their courage and Frankl’s sentiment bring to mind several of the Catholic heroes who perished in Auschwitz, as in addition to Jews, many other “enemies” of the Nazi state were sent there as well.
St. Maximillion Kolbe was executed in the camp when he begged to trade his own life for another man who was being put to death.
St. Edith Stein, a philosopher and convert from Judaism, died along with her sister in the camp’s gas chamber, but not before she risked her life to minister to fellow inmates. According to eyewitnesses, she was “a beacon of light,” spreading peace, hugging terrified women, praying with them calmly, and helping them care for young children.
There are countless other examples of Holocaust victims and survivors who refused to compromise their God-given human dignity in the face of one of the greatest atrocities of the last century — from Anne Frank to Corrie Ten Boom. And now we can add to this list the creators of a newly revealed chess set, even though we don’t know their names or stories. But we can imagine them defying tyranny — smiling at one another in the middle of the night, their chess board lit by a slanted beam of gauzy moonlight. The winner mouths “checkmate,” then discreetly pumps his fist in the air.
The scenario is profoundly inspiring so many generations later, challenging us to defy tyrannies in our own lives — whether it be a crushing sense of self-doubt, fear of the future, or an oppressive situation at home or work. Above all, the hand-drawn chess pieces speak through the ages, encouraging us to take control of the only thing we can always determine in any given circumstance — our attitude.
And today we celebrate...