Czeslawa Kwoka was 14-year-old when she was sent to Auschwitz—the infamous Nazi death camp.
She was one of the 230,000 children who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1940 to 1945.
Digital artist Marina Amaral brings the past to life by colorizing the last photos of the 14-year-old prisoner. The photos were originally taken by Wilhelm Brasse, better known as the “famous photographer of Auschwitz concentration camp.”
She was beaten by a female prison guard just minutes before these photos were taken. We can imagine what she went through as her bruises, the cut on her lip and the red blood on her face are clearly seen in the colorized pictures. She passed away on 12 March 1943 at the age of 14, the circumstances of her death were not recorded.
Digital artist Marina Amaral, who has been colorizing historic photos for last three years, recently posted the last pictures of Czeslawa for the world to see what this little girl experienced before her death.
“It was very hard to stare at her face for so many minutes knowing what happened to her. I wanted to give Czeslawa the opportunity to tell her story, which is [also] the story of so many other victims.”
“It is much easier to relate to these people once we see them in color. We understand what she and millions of others went through better once we see her bruises, the cut on her lip and the red blood on her face. The Holocaust did not begin with the mass killings. It began with the rhetoric of hate.”
“I distinctly remember [the] picture of this particular girl inmate. It’s because she looked so young, so disarmingly girlish. When she arrived at the camp, she couldn’t understand what was being said to her. So this woman Kapo (a prisoner overseer) took a stick and beat her about the face.
This German woman was just taking out her anger on the girl. Such a beautiful young girl, so innocent. She cried but she could do nothing. Before the photograph was taken, the girl dried her tears and the blood from the cut on her lip. To tell you the truth, I felt as if I was being hit myself but I couldn’t interfere.
It would have been fatal for me.”, Amaral told Bored Panda
Here are the colorized pictures of the 14-year-old prisoner, Czeslawa Kwoka where you can see what she went through.
Here are few more historic pictures colorized by the talented artist:
A Victim Of American Bombing
A French Boy Introduces Himself To Indian Soldiers
Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley And Lisa Marie
John And Jacqueline Kennedy
Polish Refugees
The Burning Monk
English Orphan In London, 1945
Migrant Mother
