Resister Project by EMMA JACKSON

Piechowski’s Auschwitz prisoner photo.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 15:11:22 UTC

In June 1940, Piechowski’s arrived in Poland as a prisoner for Auschwitz prison. He escaped the prison on June 20 1942 by breaking into an SS storeroom and stealing uniforms and weapons.

"Kommander's Car" by Katy Carr was Piechowski's favorite song.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 15:22:39 UTC

He says that he had a strong emotion to the song. This song was played in the short film "Kazik and the Kommander's Car" showing how suspenseful the film is.

The car that Piechowski used to escape.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 15:30:53 UTC

Piechowski's comrade, Bendera, got into the garage with a copied key and brought round the car. That is how they got the car and escaped the ghetto. They used the disguise to make them look like the SS.

Piechowski helped save 3 other people from the prison.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 15:46:49 UTC

Piechowski used his skills and saved not only himself, but 3 other comrades. He did the by using all his courage to yell at the Nazi's to open their escape route, the gate. If he didn't decide to take this risk, they might not have lived to see another day.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 15:54:14 UTC

Piechowski made a choice that he could not turn back on after made. As he said, "I did not think about anything, I was just trying to pass this final examination. From that moment we did not only need courage, but intelligence." His courage to wake the guards up had two consequences: they could get caught, or they can pass.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 15:57:10 UTC

As Piechowski said to the Guardian, "We are driving towards the final barrier, but it is closed . . . We have 80m to go, it is still closed . . . We have 60m to go and it is still closed. I look at my friend Gienek – he has sweat on his brow and his face is white and nervous. We have 20m to go and it is still closed . . ." This shows how suspenseful the moment actually was and how Piechowski had a big decision to make.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 16:03:10 UTC

After escaping, Piechowski becomes an engineer and lives the rest of his life with his wife, Ida. When asked if he is comfortable with sharing his life, he simply says, "I am a scout so I have to do my duty – and be cheerful and merry. And I will be a scout to the end of my life..." He confirms that even though he had to resist for his entire life, the Nazis couldn't tear down his faith.

ej8919975 — 2025-05-09 16:06:14 UTC

For six weeks, Piechowski was set to work carrying corpses after executions. "The death wall was between blocks 10 and 11. They would line prisoners up and shoot them in the back of the head." At the end there would be a pile of naked corpses and Piechowski would take the ankles, while another man held the arms, and throw them on to carts, to transport them to the crematorium. "Sometimes it was 20 a day, sometimes it was a hundred, sometimes it was more. Men, women and children." He shows that he has sypanthy all the people who had to go through the pain, be tortured, or be killed off.