Daring Leader Of Escape From Auschwitz Dies At 98
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
BERLIN (JTA) — Kazimierz Piechowski, a non-Jewish political prisoner who led a daring escape from the Auschwitz death camp using the truck of its commandant, has died at 98.
Piechowski died Saturday in Gdansk, Poland.
He was one of four men in the escape plan involving stolen SS uniforms and weapons, and the truck of Rudolf Hess. Piechowski denied rumors that the men later sent a postcard to Hess thanking him for the vehicle.
Driving toward the gate of the camp, Piechowski recalled to the Guardian in an interview several years ago that he yelled in German, “Wake up, you buggers. Open the gate or I’ll open you up.”
Piechowski, who was among Polish Boy Scouts sent to the camp as a political prisoner in 1940, would join the resistance following his escape.
One of the other escapees smuggled out of the camp what allegedly was the first detailed document about the crimes being carried out at Auschwitz, where 1.1 million people were killed, most of them Jews. It was given to the resistance.
According to a report in The Guardian, the policy of tattooing prisoners was introduced after the spectacular escape.
After the war, Piechowski was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the communist authorities, who did not trust members of the former Polish Home Army resistance. He reportedly served seven years.
The famous escape was documented in a 2007 film by Polish director Marek Pawlowski. Piechowski played a small supporting role as a narrator.
Piechowski later became an engineer, and when the communist regime fell in 1989, he traveled the world with his wife. He has written two books about his experiences.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
