Our grandmother's shocking story about the hell she experienced in the German concentration camp in AuschwitzBirkenau.

| NOTE |
Due to many comments about too loud music, we suggest watching the movie on headphones or larger speakers than those on phones, tablets and some laptops. This problem occurs mainly with such tiny speakers due to their limited processing bandwidth. We can NOT correct it anymore because YouTube doesn't allow changes to already published videos.
By the way, information for people who question the choice of music or the legitimacy of its presence: Chopin was Grandma's favorite composer and that is why we deliberately used his music in the background of the film as a tribute to Grandma.
In addition, please remember that this film is primarily our amateur, family souvenir, which we make available here to fulfill Grandma's last will that is, to share her story with the world. This is not a professional, commercial production where everything should be perfect. Thank you for understanding!


This is the second part of the story, the first part, which was published on June 3, 2020, exactly on the hundredth anniversary of Grandma's birth, which, unfortunately, she did not live to see. She died six months earlier, on Christmas Day. Two months before her death, we managed to persuade Grandma to tell her story in front of the camera, and two years earlier, we went together to the AuschwitzBirkenau State Museum, to the site of the former camp, where Grandma dared to face the demons of the past and once again visit the places where over seventy years ago the greatest trauma of her life took place. She took us to these places and told a story that for us, living in completely different times, seems more like a horror movie than a story about real life.

Grandma was born on June 3, 1920 in Radom as Zofia Stępień. After the war, she had two more names after her husbands: Ratyńska and Bator. When the war broke out, she was 19 years old. She developed artistically, went to school, had family, friends and first romances. Like every young woman, she also had many dreams. All this was brutally taken away from her. As a young and brave patriot, she became involved in the resistance movement and became a liaison officer in the Gray Ranks, where she was actively working for freedom until her arrest. After many months of unsuccessful interrogations in a Gestapo prison, she was taken with other prisoners to the AuschwitzBirkenau concentration camp, where for almost 3 years she fought for survival and helped others survive. After liberation, she returned to Radom, where she found her mother and brother alive.All the others with whom she linked her future died during the occupation. Her later life was also not easy and the untreated trauma and shattered hopes left a powerful mark. From childhood, Grandma had a passion for painting, which to some extent helped her survive the camp. After the war, she painted a lot, went to paint in the open air, which brought her joy and relaxation.

We invite you to watch the second part of the document, which tells about what life was like in this monstrous place. Grandma tells about the children in the camp, about barter, about the relations between prisoners and their roles, as well as about the extraordinary will to survive in conditions of the greatest humiliation that we, living today, cannot imagine. We encourage you to reflect and share with others to avoid such tragedies from happening ever again.

We are working on the third part of the document, which will be an account from Grandma's visit to the former camp. We invite you now, but please be patient, because the work will certainly take longer, because we do it as a hobby in our free time, which we do not have much.

We sincerely thank the AuschwitzBirkenau State Museum for providing us with the archival materials for this document. We would like to thank all the employees of the Museum who became involved in Grandma's visit to the site of the former camp and gave us access to all the places that Grandma mentioned, for the hospitality and wonderful organization, and for the respect and warmth towards Grandma that they have shown over the years. Above all, however, we would like to thank Grandma for agreeing to tell us about such tragic experiences, for the courage to show us these places and for being the best Grandma one can imagine.