We Were in Auschwitz was written by former concentration camp prisoners Janusz Nel Siedlecki, Krystyn Olszewski, and Tadeusz Borowski and was published in Munich in 1946 by the Oficyna Warszawska na Obczyznie. Anatol Girs’ evocative design for the cover reproduced the prison stripes of the camp uniforms, an unknown quantity of which were bound with fabric from actual concentration camp uniforms. The red triangle denotes, in the classification system used at Auschwitz and elsewhere, a “political” prisoner, the red 'P' a Polish national. The number 6643 was the actual camp number of co-author Janusz Nel Siedlecki. The title page prominently lists the camp number of each author next to his name (Borowski’s, 119198, being the highest). The English translation photographically reproduced the original cover as well as the title page and the dedication to the “VIIth American Army”. Girs’ had his own copy bound in leather cut from an SS officer’s coat and embellished front and back with a strand of barbed wire and embossed on the spine with the image of a cracked skull.
