( CNN ) The Nazis did all they could to make their Jewish captives faceless , dressing them in uniforms and tattooing them with numbers that would become their new identities . In the midst of that horror -- indeed , in perhaps the most horrific place a Jew could land at the time -- prisoners sought to take their images back and made sure that art was still present . Franciszek Jaźwiecki , a Polish artist and political prisoner at Auschwitz , made portraits of fellow prisoners . Though the portraits portrayed prisoners of various nationalities and ages , they shared the same haunting quality , according to Agnieszka Sieradzka , an art historian at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum . `` The most interesting in these portraits are eyes -- a very strange helplessness , '' she says . `` Prisoners created portraits because the desire to have an image was very strong . '' Sieradzka believes Jaźwiecki made the portraits because he was aware they would one day become important historical documents . Almost every portrait features the subject 's prisoner number , which gives historians a name to attach to the pictures . An earlier version of this story included a reference to `` Polish camps . '' It should have said `` Nazi concentration camps in German-occupied Poland . '' CNN regrets the error . More than 100 of Jaźwiecki 's portraits are housed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum , a memorial and museum at the site of the Nazi concentration camps in German-occupied Poland . The gallery has more than 2,000 pieces of art created inside various Nazi camps or after the war . Through the years , Jaźwiecki is said to have hidden his portraits in his bed or in his clothes . The drawings managed to survive until he was liberated . After his death in 1946 , his family donated his portraits to the museum . One of the most important pieces in the museum collection is a sketchbook containing 22 pictures most likely drawn in 1943 by an unknown prisoner at Auschwitz . The sketchbook is the only artwork documenting extermination at Birkenau . The sketches were found in 1947 , two years after liberation , near Birkenau 's crematoriums . They had been stuffed into a bottle and hidden in the foundations of one of the buildings . `` Some would be surprised that art existed in a place like that , in a place with crematories , but art was especially needed here behind the barbed wire , because the art could save a part of their human dignity , '' says Sieradzka . `` The art was a hope for a better future . The art was escape from the brutal reality of the camp to another , better world . '' According to Sieradzka , Nazi SS officers commissioned some of the works . Artistically gifted prisoners made instructional drawings and models for the military . SS soldiers also exploited the prisoners ' talents for private purposes , making them create portraits , landscapes , greeting cards and illustrations of German legends . Soldiers sent some of the art to their families or displayed it in the camp 's own gallery , the Lagermuseum . That museum also held items taken from those deported to the camp , including antiques , Jewish prayer books and garments . For Sieradzka , the most valuable and important work is the art prisoners made at great risk -- in secret . `` Prisoners could n't use materials from SS officers for private purposes . It was forbidden , but prisoners many times carried out illegal activity and used these materials for illegal artworks , '' she says , `` These paintings and drawings play a very important educational role as illustrative of what happened at Auschwitz . '' Prisoners made art using whatever materials they could find -- scraps of paper , baking paper , the backs of old letters . They made sculptures using bread and toothbrushes , says Sieradzka . `` The art was forbidden in Auschwitz so creating a drawing like that means risking torture , even death , however the art existed here almost from the beginning , '' she says . Jan Komski was a Polish Catholic arrested while crossing the border in attempt to reach the newly formed Polish Army in France . He had escaped Auschwitz once , but was rearrested in Krakow . After he was liberated , he immigrated to the United States , became a U.S. citizen , and worked for the Washington Post newspaper as an illustrator . Before he passed away in 2002 , he painted works depicting daily life in the camp -- scenes of barbarity at the hands of the SS and humanity and compassion between fellow prisoners . `` Thanks to these artworks , we could also see Auschwitz and the camp in the eyes of prisoners . And this is very unique because we have n't photos depicting everyday life of prisoners in the camp , '' says Sieradzka . Through these works , she says , we can see the truth about Auschwitz .
Auschwitz - Birkenau State Museum has works of art created in the camps . Prisoners would create art in secret and hide it . Through these works , we can discover the truth about Auschwitz , historian said .