Post by Bonobo on Nov 27, 2011 18:32:27 GMT 1
Pole who rescued girlfriend from Auschwitz dies
24.10.2011 11:47
A Polish man who escaped from the WW II Auschwitz death camp with his Jewish girlfriend has died aged 90.
Jerzy Bielecki will be remembered for concocting an audacious plan to get out of the camp.
In 1944, he spent several months piecing together an SS uniform, then slipped past a camp guard under the pretences of transferring a prisoner – in fact his girlfriend – for interrogation at another site.
The couple was later separated, and they spent decades unaware of what fate had befallen each other.
It was not until 1982, by which time Bielecki's former sweetheart Cyla Cybulska was a married New Yorker, that fate added another twist to the tale.
Cybulska told her Polish cleaning lady how she had escaped from the concentration camp, only to find that the woman had once heard an identical story on the radio.
The following year, the pair was reunited at Krakow airport, Mr Bielecki brandishing 39 roses, one marking each year that they had been apart.
Bielecki was later honoured as one of Righteous Among Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem Institute.
He died in his sleep on Thursday at his home in Nowy Targ, southern Poland. He was predeceased by his former sweetheart, Cybulska, who died in New York in 2002.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Bielecki_%28prisoner%29
Jerzy Bielecki (28 March 1921 – 20 October 2011, Nowy Targ) was a Polish social worker, best known as one of the rare inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp who managed to survive the ordeal for several years and who escaped from the camp successfully in 1944. After the war he received the Righteous Among the Nations award.[1] He also co-founded and headed the postwar Christian Association of the Auschwitz Families.[2]
Bielecki was born in 1921 in S³aboszów, Poland. A pupil at a gymnasium in Kraków, at the outbreak of World War II he decided to join the Polish Army in the West. Caught at the border with Hungary on 7 May 1940, he was arrested by the Gestapo. A month later, on 14 June 1940 he was sent to the newly-created Auschwitz concentration camp with the first transport of 728 Polish political prisoners (his camp number was 243). His decent knowledge of the German language allowed him to work at a mill in Babice, where he came in contact with the Polish anti-Nazi resistance, the Home Army.[1]
Assigned to an Arbeitskommando at Auschwitz, Bielecki met Cyla Cybulska, a Polish-Jewish inmate of Birkenau (Auschwitz II) while serving at a grain warehouse. Despite the fact that men and women were not allowed to talk to each other, they managed to exchange a few words every day and they fell in love. Cyla's family had already been murdered. Bielecki promised that they both would survive the ordeal. With time, he secretly collected the necessary supplies for an escape. On 21 July 1944 they managed to cross the camp-gate together using a fake order-form prepared by Bielecki. He was dressed in an SS uniform stolen from the laundry room where she worked.[3] They walked through the fields for ten days. Cybulska was initially hidden at Bielecki's uncle's house at Przemêczany, and later by the Czernik family in a nearby village.[4] Bielecki himself joined the Home Army.[5] However, towards the end of the war they became separated as Cyla Cybulska was informed that he had been killed during Operation Tempest, while he was told she left the country and died in Sweden. It was not until May 1983 that Cybulska accidentally discovered that he was alive and well. The couple met the following month for the first time since the war ended.[1][4]
After the war, Bielecki co-founded and became the honorary chairman of the Christian Association of the Auschwitz Families. He was also inscribed on the list of the Righteous Among the Nations (in 1985),[4] and became an honorary citizen of Israel. He died in Nowy Targ on 20 October 2011.[1] His escape from the camp with Cybulska was described in a number of documentaries and books, including Bielecki's own autobiography, Kto ratuje jedno ¿ycie... (He who saves one life...); published in 1990
24.10.2011 11:47
A Polish man who escaped from the WW II Auschwitz death camp with his Jewish girlfriend has died aged 90.
Jerzy Bielecki will be remembered for concocting an audacious plan to get out of the camp.
In 1944, he spent several months piecing together an SS uniform, then slipped past a camp guard under the pretences of transferring a prisoner – in fact his girlfriend – for interrogation at another site.
The couple was later separated, and they spent decades unaware of what fate had befallen each other.
It was not until 1982, by which time Bielecki's former sweetheart Cyla Cybulska was a married New Yorker, that fate added another twist to the tale.
Cybulska told her Polish cleaning lady how she had escaped from the concentration camp, only to find that the woman had once heard an identical story on the radio.
The following year, the pair was reunited at Krakow airport, Mr Bielecki brandishing 39 roses, one marking each year that they had been apart.
Bielecki was later honoured as one of Righteous Among Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem Institute.
He died in his sleep on Thursday at his home in Nowy Targ, southern Poland. He was predeceased by his former sweetheart, Cybulska, who died in New York in 2002.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Bielecki_%28prisoner%29
Jerzy Bielecki (28 March 1921 – 20 October 2011, Nowy Targ) was a Polish social worker, best known as one of the rare inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp who managed to survive the ordeal for several years and who escaped from the camp successfully in 1944. After the war he received the Righteous Among the Nations award.[1] He also co-founded and headed the postwar Christian Association of the Auschwitz Families.[2]
Bielecki was born in 1921 in S³aboszów, Poland. A pupil at a gymnasium in Kraków, at the outbreak of World War II he decided to join the Polish Army in the West. Caught at the border with Hungary on 7 May 1940, he was arrested by the Gestapo. A month later, on 14 June 1940 he was sent to the newly-created Auschwitz concentration camp with the first transport of 728 Polish political prisoners (his camp number was 243). His decent knowledge of the German language allowed him to work at a mill in Babice, where he came in contact with the Polish anti-Nazi resistance, the Home Army.[1]
Assigned to an Arbeitskommando at Auschwitz, Bielecki met Cyla Cybulska, a Polish-Jewish inmate of Birkenau (Auschwitz II) while serving at a grain warehouse. Despite the fact that men and women were not allowed to talk to each other, they managed to exchange a few words every day and they fell in love. Cyla's family had already been murdered. Bielecki promised that they both would survive the ordeal. With time, he secretly collected the necessary supplies for an escape. On 21 July 1944 they managed to cross the camp-gate together using a fake order-form prepared by Bielecki. He was dressed in an SS uniform stolen from the laundry room where she worked.[3] They walked through the fields for ten days. Cybulska was initially hidden at Bielecki's uncle's house at Przemêczany, and later by the Czernik family in a nearby village.[4] Bielecki himself joined the Home Army.[5] However, towards the end of the war they became separated as Cyla Cybulska was informed that he had been killed during Operation Tempest, while he was told she left the country and died in Sweden. It was not until May 1983 that Cybulska accidentally discovered that he was alive and well. The couple met the following month for the first time since the war ended.[1][4]
After the war, Bielecki co-founded and became the honorary chairman of the Christian Association of the Auschwitz Families. He was also inscribed on the list of the Righteous Among the Nations (in 1985),[4] and became an honorary citizen of Israel. He died in Nowy Targ on 20 October 2011.[1] His escape from the camp with Cybulska was described in a number of documentaries and books, including Bielecki's own autobiography, Kto ratuje jedno ¿ycie... (He who saves one life...); published in 1990
