NEWS from THE
POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS
Holocaust Documentation Committee
177
Kent Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 (516) 352-7125
SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO HER POLISH
CATHOLIC AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR DAD ON HIS 95th
Hitler’s SS Guards changed the name of Walter Kolodziejek (above) after
he was arrested
and
sent to Auschwitz in the summer of 1940, just a few weeks after the
Germans opened
it. He was only 18 then. The day he arrived he came to be
known as Auschwitz prisoner
#2254
and has worn that number on his chest ever since.
It was
only the first Polish prisoners like Mr. Kolodziejek who had their number put
on
their
chest. Almost all of these early Polish prisoners who survived the camp
have already
died
and Mr. Kolodziejek is believed to be the only one still living with this kind
of tattoo.
BROOKLYN,
NY…With the passing of 2016 and our hopes in a new year I reflect on
my
father’s 95th birthday on January 28, 2017, the passage of time,
humanity, and his legacy as a Polish Catholic Holocaust
survivor. It is nothing short of extraordinarily good
fortune
and his deep faith in God that spared my father’s life during 5 years of unthinkable
Nazi brutality.
Waclaw
Kolodziejek was arrested in August 1940 in Warsaw as a teenager. His
crime: being Polish. And he was Catholic. It took many days
in a crowded standing room only cattle car train before he was unloaded in
Auschwitz concentration camp. He found himself in the company of hundreds
of thousand of other Catholic Poles just like him. Auschwitz was not yet
completed, so my father was forced to finish this Nazi order.
Auschwitz
concentration camp was specifically constructed by the Nazis initially to
imprison Poles. From 1940 to 1942 Auschwitz prisoners were almost
exclusively Polish Christians. 1941 saw the first exterminations of these
Polish Christian prisoners. From 1942 to 1944 Jews were delivered to
Auschwitz in the Nazi “Final Solution”. Even in 1943 the Nazis killed
Polish Christian prisoners by hanging in the largest public execution in
Auschwitz.
Many
of these Polish Christian prisoners not killed in the gas chambers or
individual executions, died of starvation, forced labor, and medical
experiments. My father suffered forced labor, starvation, medical
experimentation, and torture. Throughout he refused to succumb to
death. His unbreakable endurance was remarkable, and the Nazis nicknamed
him “hard as stone”.
He
was condemned to death and tattooed on his chest with “2254”. In June 2009 Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum's Director
of Research explained this Nazi branding:
"The difficulties in identifying the corpses
increased... tattooing was done with a special metal stamp, holding
interchangeable numbers made up of needles approximately one centimeter long.
This device allowed the whole serial number to be punched at one blow
onto the prisoner's left upper chest. Ink was then rubbed into the
bleeding wound. The POWs being tattooed were so weak that they had to lean against
the wall in order not to fall over under the impact of the tattooing
punch. Other exhausted prisoners, whose physical condition indicated
the likelihood of their imminent death, began to be tattooed... There
is only a handful of Polish survivors with numbers tattooed on their
chests!!! The use of the metal tattooing stamp proved to be
impractical. A single-needle device was introduced, which pierced
the outlines of the serial-number digits. The site of the
tattoo was later changed to the left forearm."
The
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum believes that my father may be the last
remaining Holocaust survivor from one of the first transports into Auschwitz
with a number on his chest. My father has always worn this “2254” tattoo
as a badge of Nazi defiance that encapsulates his determination to live despite
all odds, a symbol of his witness and testimony to 5 years of Nazi atrocity
upon humanity.
Some
Holocaust survivors could not or would not discuss their experiences of terror
committed by the Nazis. But my family lived my father’s near-death
horrors each and every day. My sister and I grew up listening to his
recollections daily. He lived his life never forgetting what the Nazis
did and he never let his children forget.
For
a good portion of his 72 years as a Holocaust survivor since the concentration
camps were liberated in 1945 he has suffered an indignity that still
prevails. The subject of the Holocaust as it pertains to Christian Poles
continues to be met with ignorance and outright distortions to its history.
It is no secret that
Hitler’s Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) was a plan to colonize Central and
Eastern Europe, implemented by genocide and ethnic cleansing, and that Nazis
viewed Slavic People as inferior. It is no secret that Poland’s territories
have always been geographically and strategically valuable, and historically
fought over. It is no secret that on August 22, 1939 Hitler ordered his
commanders to:
“kill
without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or
language.”
Nazi
crimes claimed the lives of 3 million Christian Poles and 3 million Polish
Jews.
Yet
my father, along with fellow Polish Christian Holocaust survivors, has been met
with abject exclusion in references to the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors by
those that want to claim the Holocaust their own. He has had to endlessly
justify his very existence as a Nazi victim and as an Auschwitz survivor.
On
this 95th birthday I wish to celebrate my father’s life, defined as
a Holocaust survivor, and wish him a Happy Birthday. We celebrate his
life in defiance of Heinrich Himmler’s dark intent:
"All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is
essential that the great German people should consider it their major task to
destroy all Poles."
As
we begin a new year in 2017 I wish our world peace that includes
acknowledgment, inclusion, and deep respect for our Polish Christian Holocaust
survivors that is so deserved and overdue. My hope is for a balanced
reference of the Holocaust that correctly tells its history for future
generations to learn from. It is a responsibility that benefits humanity
and the legacy of all who suffered the Holocaust.
(Readers
who want to join his daughter Patricia Kolodziejek in wishing Mr. Waclaw
Kolodziejek a Happy Birthday may respond to PO Box 294, North Chelmsford, MA
01863).
Contact:
Frank Milewski
(516) 352-7125
