ABOUT WHAT IS LEFT. A BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH TO RESEARCH ON HUMAN REMAINS, USING THE EXAMPLE OF THE HAIR EXHIBITED IN THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU MUSEUM

The article is an attempt to write a 'cultural biography' of the hair exhibited at the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oswiecim. It in that hair has been treated a relic, remains and material constituting a source of various senses. The preface to the discussion regarding the Auschwitz hair is a presentation of their cultural and social significance and the way in which they are manipulated. Using factual data and the recollections of prisoners, the article describes German practices associated with obtaining hair in the concentration camps. The history of the hair in the museum is covered by a description of two successive exhibitions at the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, a presentation of the 'corpus delicti' rhetoric, a discussion of the conservation of the hair and, finally, what could be described as their sacralisation. At the end, the article raises the motive of the Auschwitz hair in art.