The simple game that gave Holocaust victims respite from the horrors of Auschwitz: Dozens of hand-drawn chess pieces are found under death camp’s floorboards where they were hidden from Nazi guards

More than 30 handmade chess pieces have been found hidden under floorboards at the site of Nazi Germany’s notorious Auschwitz death camp.

The 35 cardboard squares with hand-drawn figures were discovered during renovation work on the first floor of the former prisoner Block 8 in the Auschwitz I camp.

Elżbieta Cajzer, head of the Auschwitz Museum’s Collections, said: ‘Several drawings may be a bit blurry, but the images of rooks, pawns, bishops, and knights are still easily distinguishable.

‘Nevertheless, the set is incomplete, and some boxes no longer have any traces of the drawing.

‘Our evaluation shows that the objects are in a good state of preservation.

‘The chess pieces were crafted from prefabricated cardboard in a ‘relatively primitive’ way

‘They will now be subjected to conservation treatment.’

She added: ‘The discovered chess pieces are unique in that they were crafted from prefabricated cardboard in a relatively primitive way.

‘We assume the focus was not on the aesthetic qualities but on functionality, easy portability, and quick concealment.’

Established in April 1940 to hold Polish prisoners following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, by the time it was liberated in January 1945 the camp had grown into the largest killing machine in history.

Over 1 million people, mainly Jews, were executed, beaten, tortured, starved or gassed to death, while countless others died of disease or malnutrition.

Auschwitz Museum’s Magdalena Urbaniak said that to escape the harsh realities of the camp, prisoners tried to spend their free time playing games.

The newly discovered chess pieces will be shown in an exhibition on the lives of prisoners 

She said: ‘Chess and cards were popular games people could make themselves using illegally acquired pieces of cardboard or wood.

‘Camp prisoners treated mental activities as a respite from the brutal camp reality.

‘The necessary items for the game were most often produced illegally by prisoners.

‘Wood, paper, and less frequently, other available materials, such as breadcrumbs, served as material.

‘Some of the gaming paraphernalia illegally made its way to the camp’s prisoners from luggage confiscated from Jewish victims.’

Survivor Jan Dziopek who worked as a warehouseman in the camp’s carpentry shop where he crafted chess pieces and boxes, recalled: ‘I had a lot of orders, even from SS men.

‘However, I was reluctant to fulfil them. Nonetheless, I had to fulfil their orders because, under the guise of working for them, I could fulfil the requests of my colleagues, who paid me with rations of bread or camp soup.

The 35 cardboard squares with hand-drawn figures were discovered during renovation work on the first floor of the former prisoner Block 8 in the Auschwitz I camp

‘My colleagues from kitchens and various warehouses purchased these items from me, as they had no difficulty obtaining food.

‘I won’t go into detail about the number of times and how many lashes I received for this.

‘As I could not tinker in the warehouse for fear of getting caught, I created a secret hideout in the attic and transferred all the required tools from the warehouse. I tinkered there for hours.’

The newly discovered chess pieces will be shown in a forthcoming exhibition focused on the daily lives of the camp’s prisoners.