The Nazis will always be remembered for their brutality and cruelty.
As a whole, they captured, imprisoned, and tortured hundreds of millions of Jews,
all in the name of Hitler. But regardless of that, fortunately, there are many incredible stories of
Holocaust survivors. Welcome to Nutty History, and today let’s find out about Tadeusz Sobolewicz, a
Jew who survived not only Gestapo prison but also 6 concentration camps AND a 9-day death march!
Tadeusz Sobolewicz was born in Poznan, a city located in the North-West region of Poland.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Tadeusz attended Paderewski Gymnasium
and was a member of the boy scouts. He dreamt of being an artist from a young age.
An actor, to be precise. But his dream, as of many others, sadly got burnt down by the flames of war.
And little did he know what was coming. His father, a Polish army officer, forced 14 years
old Tadeusz, his mother, and his younger brother to flee from Poznan and head towards Warsaw.
Influenced by his father’s military career as well as his years as a boy scout, Tadeusz became
an active member of the Polish resistance movement during the German occupation of Poland, in 1941.
There, he served as a liaison officer for the area command of the Union of Armed Struggle
called Związek Walki Zbrojnej or ZWZ, first in Tarnów, and after some time in Częstochowa.
From the moment he joined the Polish resistance movement, he had to transfer to a secret place.
Living underground, Tadeusz was also given a fake identity to protect the resistance and himself.
Despite the effort, he was eventually betrayed and sold to the Gestapo on September 1, 1941
and taken to Zawodzie Gestapo prison. The Gestapo interrogated him and they brutally beat him to get
the information about the Polish resistance. But, Tadeusz gave up nothing. Tadeusz was extremely
patriotic like his father and he knew that his father would do the same in his position.
To his surprise, he found out that his father was brought in for interrogation too.
Being incarcerated, Tadeusz had to experience how terrible living conditions were in the Gestapo
prison. But then he was transferred to his first concentration camp and he came to know what life
in hell might be like. The concentration camps made the Gestapo prison look cozy.
On the 20th of November 1941, all of the Jewish population from Zawodzie and
Tadeusz were deported to Auschwitz. This was Tadeusz's first concentration camp.
There he was issued wooden clogs, a striped uniform and a red triangle badge number 23053,
which represented that he was a political prisoner. Being young and in good health,
he was given the task to build shelters in Auschwitz, where he spent a long and painful
period of almost two years. Tadeusz spent the rest of the war in six different concentration camps,
Auschwitz being the first and the longest where he stayed until March 10th, 1943. On that date,
he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp followed by Leipzig, Mülsen, Flossenbürg,
and eventually Regensburg. Tadeusz arrived at Mülsen Camp at the beginning of 1944.
The camp was pretty much being overrun by the influx of many prisoners of the Soviet army.
On May 1st, these Soviet prisoners planned an uprising to create a chance of mass escape for all
who were detained from the camp. Since the camp was located in the cellars of an arms factory,
they planned to set their bunks on fire to create flames and lots of smoke that would fill the
cellars and hide their escape. Unfortunately, the plan backfired. Not only did anyone escape,
but nearly 200 prisoners died from burns or shots, and many more were injured. Tadeusz was among the
prisoners who did not partake in this uprising. However fire wasn’t in the mood to distinguish who
caused it and who didn't, and Tadeusz suffered third-degree burns narrowly escaping death.
Tadeusz had to spend three months in the camp hospital recuperating from injuries. Prisoners
that survived the incident were loaded onto trucks and driven five hours non-stop to Lossenbürg.
Then, on March 19, 1945, Tadeusz and about 500 other prisoners were again transferred to
Regensburg, which would be his last concentration camp. In this camp, by day all the prisoners had
to do the dangerous job of filling bomb craters, clearing bomb debris and repairing railroads
which were affected by the Allied bombardment. By night, they were forced to sleep on the wood
shavings-covered floor of a dance hall. Only death was dancing in this hall at that time.
The building they slept in is called the Colosseum and it is located in a district called Stadtamhof.
In the inner courtyard of the building directly across the street from the Colosseum was the
location of the open-air camp kitchen where Tadeusz had to work as one of the cooks.
On the night of April 22, 1945, the American army was getting very close to Regensburg from
the north, so the SS officers decided to evacuate all 500 prisoners. The evacuation and moving was
a nine-day death march, or what the Germans called Todesmärsche as they moved southeast
toward the Austrian border. The thing about death marches is... it’s exactly as it sounds.
The prisoners marched until they literally dropped dead. If a prisoner was sentenced to a death
march, in most cases they would last around three days. And it was quite accurate as by the 4th day,
only about half of the prisoners were still alive. At night, they were forced to march with little
food or water, and by day they had to sleep in barns for a few hours, to avoid being detected
by Allied aircrafts. Those who could not keep up, were shot dead the moment they refused to
move or started slacking. By the 6th day of the march, only about 100 prisoners were left.
Tadeusz was still alive and walking but he could sense fatigue creeping up on him and it wouldn't
be long before he would fail to comply. Interestingly, rumors of Hitler committing
suicide were spreading and the guards were talking about the American Army arriving soon.
Knowing guards were only half hearted into the march by now, Tadeusz planned an escape on the
9th night with his comrades. Fortunately their attempt was a success and they managed to stay
hidden in the hay off of a barn in a small village until the Allies found them two days
later. In the end, out of the approximately 400 prisoners ordered to death march, less than about
50 survived. On March 2nd, 1945, the remaining survivors were finally liberated near Laufen,
Germany, along the Austrian border near Salzburg. Unfortunately, Tadeusz’s happiness was short-lived
as when he arrived at the nearest army hospital unit, another piece of bad news was waiting
for him. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he had to spend the next several months
recuperating in hospitals in the foothills of the Alps, before finally returning to Poland in 1946.
After finding out that his mother and younger brother were still alive, Tadeusz immediately
returned to Poland. Tadeusz’s mother had to survive five years in Ravensbrück while his
younger brother was fighting in the Polish Army. Unfortunately, his father was gassed in Birkenau
on June 20, 1942 along with his grandfather, his cousin, and many other family members.
Despite all Tadeusz endured, he lived a long life in Krakow, Poland and he sure hadn’t forgotten his
childhood dream. After returning to his country, Tadeusz followed his passion and became an actor.
His career in theater spanned for over 40 years and in the 1989 film, Triumph of the Spirit,
Tadeusz played the role of an SS officer. Tadeusz also, like most Holocaust survivors,
traveled around the world and spread awareness about the horrific events of the Holocaust.
His book, ‘But I Survived’ describes his life and experiences from the very start of World War II
to the moment he found freedom at the end of the war. Originally written in Polish,
it was later translated into German, Spanish and English and was awarded the first prize
at the Polish Auschwitz Recollections Competition organized by the State Museum
of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1985. Tadeusz lived a long and happy life of 92 years
until his death in 2015 showing the world that attrocities like the Holocaust are never
successful in killing the human spirit. Would you like to learn about more World War II survivors?
Tell us in the comments. And as always, thanks for watching Nutty History.