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Kazimierz Piechowski (; born October 3, 1919 Rajkowy, Poland) is a retired engineer, a Boy Scout during the Second Polish Republic, a political prisoner of the German Nazis at Auschwitz concentration camp, a soldier in the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) then a prisoner for seven years of the communist government of Poland. He is known for his famous escape from Auschwitz I along with three other prisoners dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, fully armed in a stolen ''SS'' staff car, in which they drove out the main gate"a universally acclaimed... () of exceptional courage and gallantry", in the words of Kazimierz Smoleń.〔Kazimierz Smoleń, ed., ''From the History of KL-Auschwitz'', transl. K. Michalik, New York, H. Fertig, 1982, page 83.〕 ==Imprisonment== After the collapse of Polish resistance to the German invasion, Piechowski along with fellow boy scout Alfons "Alki" Kiprowski (b. 9 October 1921〔Danuta Czech, ''Auschwitz Chronicle, 1939-1945'', London, Tauris, 1990, page 242.〕) were captured by the German occupiers in their hometown of Tczew and impressed into a work gang clearing the destroyed sections of the railway bridge over the Vistula, which had previously been blown up by the Polish military to impede Nazi transports. Polish Boy Scouts were among the groups targeted by the Gestapo and the Selbstschutz. They decided to leave Tczew on November 12, 1939 and attempted to get to France to join the free Polish Army. While crossing the border into Hungary they were caught by a German patrol. They were first sent to a Gestapo prison in Baligrod. They were told by the Gestapo "Actually, we should shoot you, but we have for you something much more interesting." They were sent to a prison in Sanok next, then to Montelupich Prison in Kraków. Their last stop before Auschwitz was a prison in Wiśnicz. Piechowski was sent to Auschwitz as a political prisoner, the so-called ''Legionsgaenger'', one wishing to join Polish military formationsor "legions"abroad.〔Cf. ''Secretaries of Death: Accounts by Former Prisoners who worked in the Gestapo of Auschwitz'', ed. & transl. L. Shelley, New York, Shengold Publishers, 1986, page 325.〕 Moreover, the Polish Boy Scouts were labeled a criminal organization in Occupied Poland. Piechowski was among a transport of 313 Polish deportees to Auschwitz on 20 June 1940: it was only the second transport after the initial one from Tarnów. Among this Tarnów group was another Pole who would escape in an SS uniform: Edward Galinski. Galinski's escape was short-lived. Piechowski received inmate number 918. He credits Kapo Otto Küsel (inmate number 2)one of the original 30 German deportees from Sachsenhausenwith his survival by assigning him lighter work. Piechowski was in the Leichenkommando, assigned to bringing corpses to the crematorium, including those shot at the "Black Wall" by SS-Rapportfuhrer Gerhard Arno Palitzsch. Piechowski was present when Polish priest and fellow Auschwitz prisoner Maximilian Kolbe offered to exchange places with a fellow Pole who was among a group of ten sentenced to be starved to death. The sentence was in retribution for a perceived escape attempt of a prisoner. He also had access to the list of upcoming executions, and when he checked it once he saw that his friend, Eugeniusz Bendera, was going to be executed. So both of them and 1 more man planned an escape plan. So on Saturday morning of 20 June 1942 told his camp leader along with his two inmates, that they were assigned to throw away the waste. Later they decided to go to a storage closet, grab three German uniforms, and escape. On the Saturday morning of 20 June 1942, exactly two years after his arrival, Piechowski escaped from Auschwitz I along with two other Poles, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster (b. 1921; inmate number 6438), veteran of Invasion of Poland in rank of first lieutenant from Warsaw; Józef Lempart (b. 1916; inmate number 3419), a priest from Wadowice; and Eugeniusz Bendera (b. 1906; inmate number 8502), an auto mechanic from Czortków, now Ukraine. Piechowski had the best knowledge of the German language within the group, and held the command of the party.〔Tomasz Sobański, ''Ucieczki Oświęcimskie'', (ed. ), Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1980, page 47.〕 They left through the main Auschwitz camp through the Arbeit Macht Frei gate. They had taken a cart and passed themselves off as a ''Rollwagenkommando''"haulage detail"a work group which consisted of between four and twelve inmates pulling a freight cart instead of horses.〔"Byłem Numerem: swiadectwa Z Auschwitz" by Kazimierz Piechowski, Eugenia Bozena Kodecka-Kaczynska, Michal Ziokowski, Hardcover, Wydawn. Siostr Loretanek, ISBN 83-7257-122-8〕 Bendera went to the motorpool; Piechowski, Lempart, and Jaster went to the warehouse in which the uniforms and weapons were stored. They entered via a coal bunker which Piechowski had helped fill. He had removed a bolt from the lid so it wouldn't self latch when closed. Once in the building they broke into the room containing the uniforms and weapons, arming themselves with four machine-guns and eight grenades.〔Laurence Rees, ''Auschwitz: The Nazis and "the Final Solution"'', London, BBC Books, 2005, page 54.〕 Bendera arrived in a Steyr 220 sedan (saloon) car belonging to ''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Paul Kreuzmann,〔Kazimierz Albin, ''List gończy: historia mojej ucieczki z Oświęcimia i działalności w konspiracji'', Warsaw, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1989, page 125.〕 license number SS-20868.〔Danuta Czech, ''Auschwitz Chronicle, 1939-1945'', London, Tauris, 1990, page 184.〕 As a mechanic he was often allowed to test drive cars around the camp. He entered the building and changed into SS uniform like the others. They then all entered the car: Bendera driving; Piechowski in the front passenger seat; Lempart and Jaster in the back. Bendera drove toward the main gate. Jaster carried a report that Witold Pilecki (deliberately imprisoned in Auschwitz to prepare intelligence about the Holocaust and who would not escape until 1943) had written for Armia Krajowa's headquarters. When they approached the gate they became nervous as it had not opened. Lempart hit Piechowski in the back and told him to do something. With the car stopped, he opened the door and leaned out enough for the guard to see his rank insignia and yelled at him to open the gate. The gate opened and the four drove off. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kazimierz Piechowski」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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