The Most Daring Escape From Auschwitz
By: Mythili The Dreamer
Tags: Self Improvement, Culture, History, Life Lessons, Self

The story of Kazimierz Piechowski

Piechowski was born in the town of Tczew. When he was 10 years old, he joined the boy scouts, a nationwide Polish organization focusing on patriotism, brotherhood, and bravery. Piechowski was ardently influenced by the scouts and remained its stoic supporter throughout life.

The Nazis invaded Poland when he was just 19 years old and they specifically targeted the boy scout organization which they saw as a hotbed of rebellion. A lot of Piechowski’s childhood friends were killed and others including him were rounded up. Pursued by the Nazis, Piechowski tried to flee across the Hungarian border but was caught and sent to Auschwitz.

As Piechowski says later.

“For the first three months, we were all in complete shock. And it just got worse.”

Overcrowding, starvations, daily beatings unimaginable brutality, and physical labor made Auschwitz a living hell on earth. Inmates were each given a spoon and a tin bowl to eat, drink, and urinate. If you lose the bowl, you stay hungry, that is it.

As Piechowski remembers those days in his memoirs.

“Sometimes the guards would murder just to get a holiday, he says. “When an SS man was bored, they would take off a prisoner’s cap and throw it away. They would then order the prisoner to fetch it. As the prisoner was running, the officer would shoot them. Then they would claim the prisoner was trying to escape and get three days off for foiling it.”

Everyday prisoner lists would be created by the Nazis with names of those unfortunate people who would be either shot or gassed to death in the gas chambers. Like many of the boy scouts in Auschwitz, Piechowski joined the resistance movement in the camp. And as many of the scouts spoke German, they were even able to access the prisoners’ files secretly.

One day he found the name of his best friend Eugeniusz Bendera, a gifted mechanic on the death list. That was when the inkling of an audacious plan to escape came to his mind to save his friend.

Piechowski was working in a warehouse where the uniforms were stored and Bendera was working in the garage. Together they formulated a plan in which they would steal a war, dress as German guards, and drive out of the camp brazenly. They also included two others — Stanislaw Gustaw Jaster, a former Scout, and Jozef Lempart, a priest so that they can leave by pretending to be part of a four-person work unit.

On 20 June 1942, all four of them met for the last time in the attic of a half-built block to run through their escape plan for the last time. Before they left, they prayed for their families and agreed that if the attempt failed they would shoot themselves.

As Piechowski remembers that day.

“Until the last moment, we weren’t sure. But we said to ourselves: ‘We have to do this, we have to believe.”

They picked the Steyr 220 — the fastest car in Auschwitz belonging to Rudolf Hess. They drove to the main gate — passing SS men who saluted them and shouted Heil Hitler. At the main gate, the biggest test was to come for Piechowski who played the role of a second lieutenant in a blazing hurry.

And Piechowski played the role of a swearing SS officer in such finesse that the terrified guards opened the gates without any second thoughts, leading them to freedom at last.